A Series of Unfortunate Events
by foureyesfreak27
Summary: Post-GSD. In which a bachelor's party was destined to go downhill from the start…
1. Chapter 1

**A Series of Unfortunate Events**

**Summary:** Post-GSD. In which a bachelor's party was destined to go downhill from the start…

**Disclaimer:** I do not own GS/GSD.

**A/N:** This series was inspired by The Hangover movies trilogy. I'd always wondered how the crew would celebrate a bachelor's party. It has been tossing around in my mind for the past few weeks after watching a rerun of GS/GSD. This is my first attempt on writing a GS/GSD fanfic. I hope you all enjoy it!

**Warning**: This chapter has not been fully edited yet. Please excuse any grammatical errors.

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"So what are your plans, Kira?"

Kira glanced away from the reports before him to find a familiar Black Coat blonde grinning mischievously at the White Coat Commander. "Plans for what, Dearka?" the commander inquired, curiously. The brown-haired Commander was currently in his office reviewing documents that his colleagues, most notably Yzak, had practically dumped on top of his desk. Courtesy of Shiho, Yzak's subordinate, who had graciously delivered them to his office earlier this week. If he'd known that being a commanding officer was to be stuck behind a desk twenty-four-seven, he'd gladly turn this job down earlier.

Currently lounging comfortably on the guest sofa with long legs on top of the coffee table was Dearka Elsman. A black coat captain who has the tendency to escape to his office for confinement when trying to get away from his overbearing commander. It was unsettling at first, since the blonde would come in unannounced. But overtime Kira had gotten used to his presence in which the blonde would sometimes aid him when he would come across puzzling matters at hand. The tanned blonde preoccupied himself by flipping through an old magazine aimlessly. He was about to retort until a newcomer interrupted abruptly.

"What he meant was your plans for your bachelor's party," a new and irritated voice piped in. "So this is where you've been hiding, Elsman." The man glared daggers at his second-in-command.

Speaking of the devil. "Good morning, Commander Joule," Kira greeted politely. His companion responded with a nod and a grunt.

The familiar man clad in a similar attire with Kira strolled inside with ease and handed his colleague a folder in which Kira automatically complied receiving with an incoherent grunt in dismay. Yzak Joule was well known to be a slave driver amongst the commanding officers. It's still a wonder to Kira how the Joule Team could handle such a hot-tempered man as their leader. Kira could never fathom the idea of being the underling under Yzak command for he was too grateful to be in the same ranking as the Joule heir was.

Dearka shrugged indifferently, immune to his commanding officer's hot-tempered attitude.

"I'm surprised Yzak understood my subtle question," Dearka coaxed, smirking in which he received another glare from his silver-haired commanding officer. "But yes, Kira, you are getting married this weekend, right?"

Kira gave his friend an incredulous look. "Of course I'm getting married this weekend, but I just don't see the necessity of having a bachelor's party," he reasoned as he continued to look over the files before him.

The Black Coat Captain gave the brown-haired Commander a ludicrous look. "Y-you, what? You don't want one?"

"Why would I need one?"

"Dude, it's tradition! A bachelor's party is a party where the groom can do whatever he wants! There's no restriction during the day, all you need to do is have fun and live life to its fullest!" Dearka explained exasperatedly.

Yzak scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Correction; a bachelor's party is stag night held for the groom shortly before he enters marriage, to celebrate his 'last night of freedom'. It is also common that it is a last-ditch attempt to lead the groom into temptation before the wedding and to make sure he is fully committed to his marriage proposal. In other words, it's a night when the groom can be unconditionally forgiven to commit any adulterous actions before marrying. I agree with Kira, it is an absurd tradition and it's a wonder that it's still being uphold till this day."

Dearka ignored the silver-haired Commander and waved his hand dismissively. "Don't listen to Yzak. He's just a bitter person—"

"Are you asking to be demoted, Elsman?!"

"—tell you what? Let me plan your party. I promise you, you won't regret it," the blonde guaranteed, grinning from ear to ear.

"You'll definitely regret it," Yzak muttered incoherently, probably recalling an exploit from the past that did not go according to plan.

Kira gave him a skeptical look. "I appreciate the offer, Dearka, but I don't know…"

"Oh, live a little Kira! Besides, judging from the looks of it, your face is screaming to get away from the pile of junks on top of your table," his blonde friend pointed out. Kira grimaced. It's true. Sitting down behind a desk and having to go through documents after documents endlessly was not a pleasant job. If he were to have it his way, he'd be where the mobile suits were located and have his ways with those machines.

"Well…"

"Don't give in to his tactics, Kira!" His silver-haired friend argued. "Dearka's ideas had always gone wrong at the end! This fool thinks that his mastermind plans are flawless when we all know that they're not!"

The blonde gave his friend a flat look. "Well, thanks for being such a good friend, Yzak."

"Don't trust Dearka when it comes to planning," Yzak concluded, giving his companion a warning look.

"Kira, c'mon! Just one day. We'll invite Athrun, too! The more the merrier."

The brown-haired Commander looked from one friend to the other in confusion. He wasn't so sure whether or not he should be agreeing to Dearka's idea. Truth be told, he had never thought about going through such troublesome thing of having a bachelor's party before his wedding day. It wasn't because he dislike them, it was more of the fact that he had been working restlessly for the past few months that the thought of having a stag party never popped up in his mind. Miraculously, he and Lacus had managed to find a day when both of them were free just to perform the ceremony. In addition, his supposed honeymoon, according to Lacus, was only to last about three days—three days and two nights at Orb—and in the last day they were to go back to PLANTs to continue with their duties respectively. Unlike Yzak who seemed to be enjoying the mountain pile of work commanders are deemed to accomplish and oversea, Kira felt antipathetic towards his duties.

"Maybe Dearka's right," the words came out of his mouth before he could process them.

Both of his companions—who were bickering at each other—stopped to look at their brown-haired friend.

"Say what?!" Both Yzak and Dearka bellowed simultaneously. The former with disbelief while the latter with enthusiasm.

Kira sighed. Dearka's right; perhaps what he needed was a break. A break from all of this endless breeding stacks of papers that were around him and his duty. It's too late to take back his words now anyways. The Black Coat blonde was practically shinning with excitement in his eyes. "Alright, Dearka. You win. Let's have a bachelor's party," Kira sighed in resignation.

Dearka cheered with a fist pump while his silver-haired friend frowned. "Kira, you're making a terrible mistake. Perhaps you should overthink this once more..."

"Oh quit being such a joy kill, Yzak. Kira already agreed." The tanned blonde smirked victoriously. "Wait till I get a hold on Athrun."

"But, Dearka. You may have my permission," Kira began, halting his blonde friend's short-lived celebration. "But you need to get permission from Lacus before you do anything."

Dearka frowned. "But why? It's your party, not the Chairwoman's."

His silver-haired companion scoffed. "Well, good luck convincing the Chairwoman in allowing her groom to go to a strip club."

Kira frowned at the mention of the idea. "Please, anything but that place. If Athrun were to come with us, Cagalli will have our heads." All three elite soldiers shuddered. Although Yzak is the male form of a hot-tempered being, Cagalli is in a whole different category as a female. They would rather be going to a battlefield than opt to go against the blonde princess.

"Fine, no strip club," the blonde dejectedly agreed. "Anywhere but there should be fine, right?"

Yzak shook his head. "Trust me, she's going to say that all of this is a horrible idea."

The charming blonde winked at his two commanding officers. "Oh trust me, guys. She's going to think that this is a _wonderful _idea."

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"I think it's a wonderful idea."

Two pairs of eyes almost bulged out of their sockets while another pair twinkled in delight.

"What?! You're kidding right? Please tell me you're jesting." Yzak protested, eyeing his leader with questionable eyes.

The pink-haired former songstress turned chairwoman merely laugh at Yzak's horrid expression. "No, Yzak-san. I'm not kidding. I believe Kira, Dearka and you should have a break. Fortunately, Dearka made an exemplifying idea of having a bachelor's party as your day off."

"Lacus," her fiancé began, "are you sure? It's fine if I don't have one."

Lacus smiled at him reassuringly. "I'm sure. I'm sorry that you've been busy these past few months, Kira. I believe Dearka's idea of you having a bachelor's party is a grand idea."

"You've got to be kidding me," the Joule heir muttered bitterly. He cannot believe that the Chairwoman actually agreed to go along with Dearka's ludicrous plan.

"You know, Yzak, since you're against this whole idea from the start you don't have to come," Dearka reasoned, slightly smirking.

The silver-haired Commander glared at the blonde in annoyed. "Yeah right. One of us has to make sure the groom actually shows up for his wedding day so I'm coming with."

"Speaking of party, have you had your bachelorette's party yet, Lacus?" Dearka inquired with interest.

The Supreme Council Chairwoman merely smiled in secrecy. "Well yes, as a matter of fact, I did."

Three pairs of eyes looked at their leader in astonishment. "You did?" They parroted simultaneously.

"Where?" The Elsman heir wondered out loud. His other two companions nodded with the same wonder.

"If you want to know, why don't you ask Miriallia? She was there."

At the mention of his Natural girlfriend, Dearka's eyebrows shot up. "W-what? She was? When was this?" Trying to recall his memories of when his girlfriend had not been with him.

"And Shiho was there, too," Lacus added, looking over at Yzak. The oblivious silver-haired Commander merely gave a questionable look, clearly missing the innuendo that the pink-haired was implying. When did Hahnenfuss have to time to actually be sociable he thought to himself.

Lacus chuckled and got up from her seat. "Well then, if that's all boys, then I'll be on my way." She pressed the intercom and immediately two ZAFT officers clad in green uniform entered her office, ready to escort their leader to her next destination.

Before she departed, she turned to look at the three elite officers and winked at them. "Have fun at the party. But I can assure you that my bachelorette's party was _wilder_ than what your party is going to be like." With that, she left the three officers in wonder. Her fiancé was wondering just how wild her party was and the other two were forming a scheme to coax their counter partners on where and when the party actually took place.

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**Side Story:**

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Ever since his encounter with the Supreme Council Chairwoman, Dearka Elsman, heir to the prestigious Elsman family of the PLANTs colony Febuarius, was left in deep wonder the rest of his day. His mind was in turmoil for which the consequences was not unfathomed by his subordinates around him. He had not been listening to a briefing earlier with the other ZAFT black coat captains (he had made a fool out of himself when they called him out and he yelled "a male strip club!" out loud in which his colleagues gave him questionable looks in response to his outburst). He absentmindedly poured a generous amount of salt to his black coffee instead of sugar (in which he spit out the vile liquid from of his mouth and unknowingly spat it at his assistant). And finally, he had signed a grand total of twenty five documents not with his name but with his Natural girlfriend's name (his assistant blandly pointed out to him when he was about to sign the twenty sixth document. Of course he was forced to go back through the signed documents and white out the name to put his signature instead). All in all, he was having a bad day thanks to the words of a certain pink-haired chairwoman.

Finally, here he was, sitting on top of a stool while resting his chin with one hand and elbow and arms on top of the kitchen counter. His girlfriend was currently attempting—keyword,_ attempting_—to make a presentable and edible dinner for the both of them tonight. Tonight, it was her turn to spend the night over at his apartment and she vehemently asserted in making their dinner in which he begrudging complied with her wish.

"Hey, Millie," he finally called out in attempt to ease his cycling mind off of.

"Yeah?" his girlfriend replied, not taking her eyes off of the conspicuous cooking that she was presently stirring. Dearka twitched (was that a gooey bubble that he just saw?).

"I was wondering…"

"About what?" Miriallia inquired.

"Did you went to Lacus's bachelorette's party?" He finally mustered up the courage to ask.

The former head of Archangel's CIC finally stopped her stirring to look at her Coordinator boyfriend. "How did you know about that?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "So is that a yes?"

The brunette shrugged back and continued on with her cooking. "Yes, why?"

She's not giving in easily, he thought bemused. Well, she was after all, immune to his charm.

"Where exactly did you go? As a matter of fact, _when_ did you go and why wasn't I informed of it?"

"What's with all these questions?" She retorted back. Why indeed?

"I…well you see, Kira's having his bachelor's party soon, so I was thinking…"

"…Yes?" She pressed on.

"If you have any ideas where we should go. I mean, I was placed in charge of the planning." It was true, he was in charge. But to coax his lovable girlfriend on where and when she went he just had to play along.

Miriallia quirked a brow up. "They put _you _in charge?" It was rather a statement of disbelief.

Dearka frowned. "Why is everyone thinking that it's a bad thing to put me in charge?"

"Dearka, there's a reason why you're Yzak's second commander. He's in charge; and you're not."

The tanned blonde frowned once again. "That's mean."

"It's the truth. As much as you're an elite soldier, your charismatic personality is nowhere good as Yzak's leadership," she explained, slight smiling.

Way to bruise his ego, he thought bitterly.

"And to answer your question, I went last Saturday. It was the only free time Lacus has besides her upcoming wedding."

Dearka began to ransack his memory of the events that happened last Saturday. Besides being stuck in his office on a weekend, he poked fun on Yzak, trained some new leaf subordinates that were fresh from the Academy, went through three gruesome meetings…

"Wait a minute, didn't you say that you were visiting your parents that day?" he queried, remembering her hasty explanation on going back to Earth that Saturday. His girlfriend responded with a shaking head.

"No, I said that I was going to Orb that day," she corrected him.

"Yeah, to visit your parents," he countered.

"I never said I was going to visit my parents…" she trailed off, ambiguously. The tanned blonde frowned. "You lied to me?"

"No, not exactly, I just exempted the fact that I was going to a bachelorette's party," she meekly smiled, in which her Coordinator boyfriend's frown deepened. She sighed exasperatedly. She turned off the stove and walked towards him to peck his cheek.

"I'm sorry I was being vague," she apologized with a small smile. He was still frowning in which she coaxed him with a peck on the lips.

He gave her a small smile as her compensation. "Fine, you're forgiven. But_ where_ did you go in Orb?"

She shook her head once more. "That, my dear, I won't tell."

His frown returned and she sighed once again. "If you're worried that I went to a male strip club, I can assure you I didn't." Her boyfriend protest, but she knew him too well. He was lying through his teeth.

"Other than that, I assure you what we did was legal. We did not break any laws. We simply had fun," she assured him.

"Yeah, a bit _too_ much from what I've heard," he mumbled quietly.

"Are you implying that I cheated on you?" She finally asked with a quirk brow.

"No!" He retorted immediately. Yup, he's lying once again. Who would've known that the great Dearka Elsman was a jealous man indeed?

Miriallia chuckled. "I know, I was just teasing. You know I won't."

"I know that. I'm sorry for making it seem as if I don't trust you." He shyly smiled. She pecked him once more before attending to her cooking again. "You're forgiven. Now, let's eat."

She placed a bowl in front of him that contained his so called 'dinner'. Surprisingly, it looked presentable. Nothing seems to be undercooked or overcooked. Everything looks like how the food she was attempting to make should look like. But what he grudged was the tasting part.

"Well? What do you think?"

Dearka nodded in approval. "It _looks_ good." In which he received a swat on the arm.

"Well come on now, go on and taste it," she cajoled him, eagerly. With that look on her face, Dearka didn't have the heart to say no to her. She was rather very persuasive with facial expressions and him with his words (although she was mostly immune to his charms by now).

He hesitantly picked up the spoon that was placed beside his bowl and gulped. Perhaps this time she prevailed. It won't hurt him anyways just to try now could it?

He scooped out a generous amount of the nourishment and slowly ascend it closer towards his mouth. Once the content was inside his mouth, he began to chew slowly. His girlfriend was looking at him with high hopes and gleam in her eyes.

Unfortunately, the moment he swallowed the content, his facial expression drastically changed. His face turned green and immediately, he puked out the content before it ever reached his stomach. He coughed and a glass of water was immediately placed before him. He quickly chugged down the liquid, getting rid of the vile taste and finally gasp.

A moment of silent fell between the couple.

"Sweetheart," Dearka began after regaining his breath, "I implore you to let us have dinner outside, call in a takeout order, or better yet, let me do the cooking from now on."

Miriallia frowned and sighed in resignation. "That bad?"

Dearka nodded vigorously, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Yes, if you want us to live, don't ever get close to the stove_ ever_ again."

His girlfriend rolled her eyes at his dramatic statement and placed both hands up in surrender. "Okay fine, you win. I'll go get the takeout menu…"

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**A/N:** And there you have it ladies and gentlemen! The first chapter! Honestly, my favorite part was writing the interaction between Millie and Dearka. They're just too cute! It's a shame that their short-lived romance was not explored. I just hope that if the Gundam Seed franchise were to have a sequel, Dearka and Millie would become a couple then. Besides Dearka being my favorite character to write, I love Yzak! His explanation of bachelor's party was taken from Wikipedia (hehe). Next chapter is the start of the boys' adventure! In addition, I'm going to write a story of how Yzak coaxed Shiho into telling him where she went for the party! Until next time! Let me know what you all think about this by reviewing!


	2. Chapter 2

**A Series of Unfortunate Events**

**Chapter 2**

**Summary:** Post-GSD. In which a bachelor's party was destined to go downhill from the start…

**Disclaimer:** I do not own GS/GSD.

**Characters:** Kira Yamato, Athrun Zala, Dearka Elsman, Yzak Joule, and Shinn Asuka.

**Warning**: This chapter has not been fully proofread yet. Please excuse any grammatical errors.

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_**ZAFT Military Colony, Armory One**_

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Shinn Asuka looked at his commanding officer with a pair of warily and surprised red eyes.

The question that was asked by the man sitting before him was still ringing in his head. There were a few things in this world that somehow bypassed his guard as a soldier. One of them would be his girlfriend, Lunamaria. She would always, _always_ managed to throw him off guard. She would surreptitiously sneak up behind and scare him senselessly. Till this day, he was still perplexed—and a slightly annoyed—of how she managed to disturb his equilibrium so easily. But perhaps it's the stealthily tip-toeing antic she acquired back in the Academy when approaching cautiously to a target. A few other things he'd rather not mention—especially that one time when he was mauled by an army of the Chairwoman's Haros—but right now a question has thrown him off guard that pertains quite a peculiar topic.

"I beg your pardon, Sir, but would you kindly please repeat the request to me once more?" he said, not quite understanding what the White Coat brown-haired just told him. Perhaps he did, but he needed verification from the man across him to know whether or not his ears had deceived him.

His commanding officer, Kira Yamato, sighed out loud and ran a hand through his brown locks in frustration, clearly feeling unease about repeating it. "It's not a request, Shinn. But I would like your presence in my upcoming bachelor's party tomorrow," the commander repeated, slowly as he stared cautiously at his Red Coat subordinate.

Shinn blinked. Okay, maybe he heard it right in the first place.

After serving under the Yamato Team for as long as he could remember since the Second Bloody Valentine War, he had never recalled being requested to do such a…_personal_ entreaty from his commander. It was quite an odd request. Both Shinn and his commander were currently on break for lunch in the cafeteria, sitting on a table that was far away from the earshot of other ZAFT soldiers. Earlier, the Red Coat was eating lunch with a few comrades just like any other day until unexpectedly their commanding officer showed up and requested to 'borrow' Shinn alone for a bit. Everyone was perplexed by this sudden and peculiar demand, especially Shinn. Their Commander almost never eat together with the rest of the Yamato Team, let alone in the cafeteria. He would either be seen eating with the other commanding officers, with the chairwoman, or in solitary confinement alone in his office. This indeed was a rare occasion. But like every good soldiers, they did not question a command from their superior officers and Shinn went off to follow the Commander to a secluded table in the room.

Both superior and subordinate ate their respective lunches silently. A cumbersome silence fell between the two and all of the sudden Shinn felt extremely uncomfortable eating alone with his commander. It wasn't the fact that he did not like Kira, it was far from disliking, he respected him. He truly believed that the brown-haired White Coat did a remarkable job learning quickly from Commander Yzak on how to be a commander since the former did not received any formal military training. He was a fair commander, always looking out for his team members. But whenever Shinn is with Kira, he would either be in company of Lunamaria or other ZAFT soldiers but almost never alone.

Now all of the sudden the White Coat had requested an offer that truly threw him off guard and he does not know what or how to respond to such question.

"Commander…is there something I should be afraid of? Perhaps something has happened?" The Red Coat soldier bashfully asked, skirmishing uncomfortably as he began to play around with the food on his plate with a fork. "This is rather a personal affair that you're asking me to meddle in."

His Commander gave him a soft reluctant smile. "Ah, again, it's not a request from a Commander, Shinn. This rather an invitation as a friend. You see, Captain Elsman planned this whole thing for me. So far, it's only going to be me, him, Commander Joule, and Athrun who are coming with. My other friends, Sai and Kuzzey, are unable to make it because of work. I'd figured you'd tag along since you might not be busy."

The subordinate went silent, as if he's trying to make any sense of the current situation at hand. So if he were to go, he'd be stuck with not one, but _two_ commanding officers; his own Commander and Commander Joule? Should he be worried? Commander Joule is not your typical commander after all, he ruled and reigned his team with an iron fist. A Red Coat soldier he knew from the Joule Team would complained about how much of a slave driving beast Commander Yzak Joule was. He had heard rumors that he made a young Green Coat girl who's fresh from the Academy cry because of his shrill demeanor simply because she was 'incapable of executing such an elementary task that even a five year old can accomplish'; the commander's words not his. He cannot quite pictured Commander Joule partying, and if he tried, the image would go blank. Captain Elsman was a different story. A man oozing with charisma and has an amiable and easy-going aura, it's a wonder how the blonde captain was best friend with the hot-tempered White Coat. Lastly, Admiral Athrun Zala of Orb who was a former Red Coat Elite Soldier in the ZAFT forces. He has no problem with the dark blue-haired man since he was practically akin to his commanding officer.

So why would his Commander invite an underling like him to go to such a personal event?

"Oh why don't you just agree already, Shinn?" A voice piped in, circling an arm around his neck and pulled him close to the owner of the voice.

"Captain Hawthorne!" Shinn exclaimed in surprise. Another fellow he knew who somehow manages to throw him off guard.

"Yo," his captain cheekily greeted with a salute. "Afternoon, Commander."

Kira nodded and return his informal greeting with a smile. "Good afternoon, Daniel." Lieutenant Captain Daniel Hawthorne was assigned to the Yamato Team shortly after the Second Bloody Valentine War. A fierce man at the battlefield and an expert in hand-in-hand combat with a mobile suit, he was considered one of ZAFT's most prized and prominent war heroes. A man slightly older than Shinn himself with wavy dark brown hair and a pair of golden eyes that would always seems as if they're looking for adventure. With a pair of dimples on his cheeks, he looks younger than his age as well. He tends to act a bit childish, an uncanny resemblance to Commander Joule's second commander, Captain Dearka Elsman. Unlike Captain Elsman who was a charismatic and easy-going fellow through and through, Captain Hawthorne seems to be a tad bit too soft—in Shinn's opinion, at least—hence his tendency to interact with his subordinates as if they're old pals.

"Captain, why aren't you invited?" Shinn asked, looking at his Captain with curiosity.

His captain scoffed and released the younger companion from his grasp. "I was, but then I realized if I were to come, who's going to be in charge? Certainly not you," his captain explained, displeasure shown in his face indicating that he was clearly upset about his temporary status.

"But Captain Elsman is coming along with Commander Joule," the Red Coat logically reasoned.

The Black Coat Captain rubbed his chin as he looked thoughtful for a minute. "True, but Lieutenant Hahnenfuss is practically Commander Joule's right-hand man, er, woman. From what I've heard, she's capable of handling the Commander's affair in his stead. Unfortunately for me, I am stuck with the rest of the Yamato Team while the Commander here is having fun." His commander chuckled at his displeasure. Although that may be true, Kira knows that Daniel didn't mind one bit in taking care of his share of duty as Kira's second-in-command.

"So what do you say, Shinn?" Kira said, bringing the younger man's attention to him once again. "Would you like to come?"

The Red Coat soldier hesitated. "Well, I don't know…" After all, he too has loads of work to do being one of the elite pilot of the Yamato Team. These past few weeks, he was in charge of training newly recruits from the Academy about air combat battles and other formal trainings.

"He'll come," Captain Hawthorne rectified firmly, clasping a hand on the younger lad's shoulder.

The Red Coat subordinate gave his captain an incredulous look. "Captain!"

"That's…an order." The captain winked at his flustered subordinate before saluting his commander a goodbye and went off his way.

Shinn frowned as he watched the latter's silhouette as it gets farther away. "Don't mind him, Shinn. It's not an order, he's just bitter because he couldn't come. It's all up to you."

The red eyed lad sighed out loud before giving his commanding officer a reluctant nod. "An order's an order, Sir. I'll be honored to come with. If that is all, I shall go back with the others." He saluted his commander, in which Kira returned with a smile, before picking up his tray of food and going about his way. He can't help but to wonder just what kind of mess he got himself into.

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_**Aprilius One, Aprilius City PLANTs**_

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"Kira, are you sure having Dearka plan this whole thing out was a good idea?" a voice whispered skeptically next to Kira.

Kira glanced to his right to find his best friend, Athrun Zala, looking rather anxious than excited. Somehow, Kira couldn't blame the dark blue-haired Admiral for feeling unease about their current situation. After all, it _was_ Dearka who planned tonight's event.

"It'll be fine, Athrun. Although Dearka may be the goofball amongst us, he's not incapable of making bad decisions." At least, he hoped so, Kira thought optimistically. Athrun gave Kira a doubtful look but nevertheless he dropped the subject.

Both Kira and Athrun were waiting for the rest of their group members to show up. They agreed to meet up in town in Aprilius One. For tonight, both soldiers were clad in civilians' attires. Truth be told, it felt oddly weird to be wearing jeans and t-shirts out in public since it has been quite a while since Kira had worn civilian outfits. He would always be seen wearing his ZAFT white coat attire and when he's not wearing his military uniform, he would dressed smart in suit and tie. Athrun on the other hand was wearing a thin long sleeve shirt with long khakis instead of his white Admiral uniform.

Athrun had arrived in PLANTs yesterday evening after being invited to tonight's event earlier this week by Dearka. As the best man of the groom, he was naturally inclined to come. But after finding out that the Elsman heir was in charge of the party, he hesitated. Athrun suddenly had flashbacks of all their escapades that he and his friends had done back in the Academy, almost all of them were orchestrated by the one and only Dearka Elsman. The dark blue-haired Coordinator mentally shuddered as he remembered a time when he and the rest of his friends were reluctantly coaxed by the blonde friend on pulling a prank on the girls at the Academy by switching their shampoos with bright orange hair dyes. Dearka had reassured them that all the girls were still going through their training and would not be in their dormitory until later afternoon. Unfortunately, their plan had gone spiraling downhill.

They were caught red-handedly in the girls' bathroom by a girl who unexpectedly decided to go use the shower room earlier than the boys had anticipated (the girl had screamed and alarmed the rest of her companions to see what happened). He and the rest of his squad were put on garbage disposal duty for two weeks and in addition, their squadron was assigned to do a ten mile run after their general training with the other squadrons every day for one week. After the whole fiasco of constantly being smelled like rotten food and having sore backs and aching legs, the group unanimously decided to ban Dearka from planning anything ever again.

After many attempts to coax the Admiral, Dearka managed to use the guilt trip of dropping that fact that Athrun was Kira's best friend and how Kira would be sadden that his longtime friend refused to come along. So now here he was, waiting anxiously for what's to come.

"Do you have any ideas on where we're actually heading tonight?" Athrun asked in wonder.

Kira shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. I tried asking earlier but all Dearka said was 'Don't worry about it, buddy. You'll find out soon enough.'" Athrun frowned.

"I don't like the sound of that," the Orb Admiral confessed. His brown-haired companion nodded in agreement. "Cagalli told me to make sure that no harm comes to you."

Kira smiled at the mention of his twin sister. "She needs to stop worrying. Nothing bad is going to happen."

Athrun chuckled, "I'll hold your words against you if something _does_ actually happens."

"Evening, Commander, Admiral," a voice greeted.

Both men turned to find their young friend, Shinn Asuka, saluting as he trudged towards them. He was clad in his civilian attire that consist of dark khakis and a red short sleeves shirt.

Kira smiled and returned the salute. "Good evening, Shinn. You don't have to be formal with us. Tonight I'm not your commander but a friend," he corrected his subordinate in which Shinn slightly flushed in embarrassment.

"I apologize…Kira," Shinn managed to muster out, eccentrically calling his commander by his given name. It felt foreign on his tongue since habitually he referred the brown-haired man as 'Commander'.

Athrun chuckled at the younger man's discomfort. "It's nice to see you again, Shinn." Shinn offered a small smile in return.

"Where are Dearka and Yzak?" Kira wondered out loud, frowning at his wristwatch. "They said to meet up around six in town."

"Oi Kira! Athrun! Shinn!" A boisterous voice called out. All three lads cringed at the sound of the familiar voice. Oh boy, here comes the troublemaker.

"Comm—er, Kira, are you sure about this whole thing? After all, Captain Elsman was the one who coordinated this event," Shinn muttered next to Kira. Kira sighed, why is everyone doubting the blonde's plan? All of these doubts are beginning to make him doubt this whole thing, too.

"Trust me, Shinn. I'm beginning to think that this is all going to be one very_ bad_ idea," he professed to the younger Coordinator.

"Elsman, we are in a civilian area, be a good soldier and shut the hell up," his silver-haired companion ordered in annoyed.

The Elsman heir gave the group a sheepish grin as an apology as he scratched the back of his head. "Ah, sorry, sorry, as you can see, I'm pretty hyped up about this."

"No kidding," Athrun muttered.

Dearka winked at the four gentlemen behind him. "Now, let's get the show on the road, shall we?"

Four soldiers sighed. One in irritation, another in worried, while the last two in resignation. Whatever they were facing tonight, they just hope that they'll be alive to see another day.

* * *

**.**

**.**

**.**

_**Unknown Location in Australis Colony, Mars**_

.

The mistake that Kira Yamato immediately realized the moment he woke up was the fact that he had opened his eyes_ way _too abruptly.

In a matter of seconds, blinding rays of yellow spectrum stabbed his groggily sensitive eyes, jolting them with excruciating pain as a wakeup call. A hiss of agony escaped his lips as his eyes adjusted themselves to the new light after their deep slumber. After blinking rapidly for a few minutes, a stab of ache twanged around his brain, making it feel heavier than it's ever been before after his attempt to see clearly. His head felt as if someone had driven a screwdriver through his brain which was rewarded by a massive pounding of headaches. His throat felt dry like the Sahara Desert of Africa, almost as if someone had deprived him of the natural essence of life for weeks. His whole body felt sluggish and hefty as his muscles refused to budge an inch of movement. Whatever he may be feeling right this moment, his consciousness tells him that he must get up and maneuver his aching body around.

His weak body protest his attempt in getting up off of whatever he was leaning against but in the end his desire to sit up won. A rush of spasm circulated his body the second he sat up.

Ugh, what the _hell_ did he do that made him in such a miserable state?

He blinked once more to observe his unfamiliar surroundings and frowned. He concluded that he was currently inside some sort of ship judging by the machines around him—a ruined one considering that there was a huge hole on top of the raft—and found his comrades in various positions inside.

He found Dearka in the corner with a party horn still intact in his mouth. A party hat was placed on top of his mop of tousle blonde hair. The tanned blonde was currently still in deep slumber as he softly snores. But what perplex the brown-haired was the fact that blonde was currently topless and is splattered with what it looks like disoriented colors of paint on him.

Kira looked to his left to find Athrun in a similar state. He too was topless and splattered with paint all over his physique. But what caught the Ultimate Coordinator's attention was a rather dark and bold ink that somehow salvaged itself from the paint war around the blue-haired Coordinator's body. Kira blinked. Holy crap, was that a tattoo on Athrun's back? Since when did Athrun has a tattoo? From the looks of the freshly glaze ink, it still looks pretty new. He cannot believe what he was seeing. Athrun with a tattoo. This was getting even more comical by the second. Another figure caught his eyes to Athrun's right.

A silver-haired man was currently laying on the floor. Kira quickly surmised it to be Yzak. He noticed the man was on the ship's floor sleeping in a rather obscure position. He too was covered in paint but minus the topless part. The silver-haired Commander's face was flushed red as he softly snores in his state of slumber. A shiny figure on Yzak's ear caught Kira's attention and after squeezing his eyes in attempt to decipher the object, Kira succeed and his eyes went wide.

No. Freaking. Way.

Although his eyes may be in a sorry state but he cannot not believe that his eyes were manipulating him that much. If whatever his eyes were seeing and processing those images to his brain was true, then those (one…two…three…four…_five?!_) _five _shiny bright objects hanging on Yzak's right ear were_ piercings_. Kira suddenly flinched from his seat when he suddenly saw Yzak yawned out loud and turned to sleep on his back before quickly continuing his deep slumber. With his new position, Kira's eyes discovered yet another newly addition to Yzak's body. This time it was a bright red ink that was meticulously painted on the left side of the man's _face_. Oh lord, once Yzak wakes up, he was _not_ going to be amused by his newly decorations that were added on to his body, particularly the one on face.

Okay, calm down, now is not the time to be wondering how his friends have gotten rebellious and did something out of their character to get tattoos and piercings. Right now, he needs to figure out where in the solar system they are in so that he could get himself, Athrun, Yzak, Dearka, and Shinn—

Kira's eyes went wide from the epiphany. Holy crap, _Shinn_! Where is Shinn?! He could not locate his red eyed subordinate anywhere! He quickly looked around and found no sight of the black-haired soldier. His current state is hindering him to recall what exactly happened last night, let alone what happened to the poor boy.

Looking at the bizarre situation before him, an overwhelming feeling of hysteria begins to surface. What the _hell_ happened last night?

.

"Guys! Guys, wake up! Athrun, hey Athrun!" Kira frantically exclaimed, shaking his best friend ferociously.

The dark blue-haired Coordinator groaned in pain. "S-stop...yelling…" he managed to croak out.

Kira paid no heed to his plea and continued on shaking. "No! Wake up! We have a problem! _Shinn _is _missing_!"

At the mention of the youngest soldier amongst them, Athrun immediately got up which he promptly regret a second later.

Pain. Pain. Pain.

That was the one word that currently describe his miserable state. "Ugh," he groaned in displeasure. "W…what do you mean…Shinn's missing?" He managed to muster up the question without opening his eyes.

"It means Shinn is not with us! He's nowhere to be found!" Kira told him in frustration. The brown-haired Coordinator quickly made his way across the ship to wake up the sleeping blonde. "Dearka! Dearka, wake up! C'mon we need to get out of here! I have no idea where we are!"

The blonde made a groggily noise and swat an arm in annoyed. "Leave me alone," he protested quietly. Kira cringed. The smell of strong alcohol still lingers in the blonde's breath. "Dearka, please wake up!" Kira shook him once more with no vail but did not give up in attempt to wake the heavy blonde.

Athrun managed to gain his equilibrium quickly and decided to wake up the sleeping silver-haired beast next to him. At first, he was rendered speechless as he peeked at Yzak's face. There lies a tattoo; a rather long bright red dragon tattoo that was inked from the temple of his left face all the way down to his left jaw line. Athrun was awestruck by the artwork and wondered how the hell did the silver-haired fellow managed to get a tattoo on his face? He shook his head. Now's not the time to be wondering about such thing. They need to wake up so they can get the hell out of where ever this place was.

"Yzak. Hey, Yzak, wake up," Athrun hissed at the drunk commander but all he received was a snarl from his friend before the latter went on sleeping.

"Yzak," Athrun called impatiently. The Joule heir won't budge. Sighing in irritation, Athrun did the one thing he could think of without caring about the consequences of his action. Within a blink of an eye, the dark blue-haired Admiral flicked a finger onto his friend's forehead _hard_. Immediately, pale blue eyes shot wide open in mixture of shock, anger, and pain. He got up to touch his forehead that was inflected with pain and yelled, "Who the hell are you, you scumbag?!"

Athrun rolled his eyes. "Yzak, it's me, Athrun."

The hot-tempered heir blinked rapidly to adjust to the morning light before glaring ferociously as his eyes zeroed into the culprit who had flicked his forehead. "And who gave you the rights to flick me on the forehead, Zala?"

"Yzak, please calm down," Kira coaxed the silver-haired commander. "Right now we need to get up so we can get out of here."

The silver-haired grunted after realizing that they weren't in a familiar place. "Where are we?"

"In a ship," Athrun answered. "Somehow by the looks of it, we crash landed. For now, I could care less about how in the world we got here in the first place. What we need to do right now is try to find Shinn who's currently missing."

The Joule heir furrowed his brows. Now that the dark blue-haired Coordinator mentioned it, the youngest member of their company was nowhere to be seen.

"Does anyone know how to wake Dearka up?" Kira wondered out loud in frustration.

Yzak huffed in annoyed before muttering Kira to move out of his way. He jerked his feet back and kicked blonde Coordinator on his shin. Both of his awake companions look at their silver-haired friend in horror.

"Wake up, you idiot!" Yzak growled.

Alarmed by the loud voice, the blonde-haired captain's eyes shot wide open and instantly scurried up. "W-what happened?" Dearka spluttered, looking around. He flinched as he began to feel the consequences of excessive drinking and the sudden pain on his left shin. "Who the hell kicked me?"

"I did, now wake up, Elsman," Yzak commanded without remorse about kicking his best friend.

"How you are feeling, Dearka?" Kira asked, pitying the poor blonde.

His friend in question groaned in pain and covered his sensitive eyes. "As if someone had ran me over with a car repeatedly and drove a sledgehammer to my head, pounding on it constantly. It hurts like hell."

"Now that all of us are up, can we please figure out a way to get out of here?" Athrun stated factually. All three of his companions nodded almost grimacing at the poor state that they are in. "Alright, then. From the looks of it, the door is jammed. Our only option out of this forsaken ship is that hole up there." As the boys were trying to figure out a way to climb up through the wrecked raft, an unfamiliar voice began to interrupt their search.

"Whoa, look at what I found!" a loud voice from above exclaimed excitedly.

All four soldiers looked up at the hole above them in alarmed at the intruder.

"Who the hell are you?" Yzak spat out, attempting to glare daggers but was instead developed into squint at the newcomer in consequence of the glaring light above. The sun was making it impossible for them to see their intruder clearly.

The owner of the voice suddenly got up from his crouching position on top of the ship's raft and jumped inside, startling all four Coordinators. Three Coordinators looked at their newly intruder with distrust and went battle ready while the last one was trying to figure out where he had seen the familiar man before him. The man has spikey brown hair with a blue band wrapped around his forehead. He was wearing a worn out black t-shirt with dark blue jeans. He waved a friendly hand as a greeting.

"I thought this ship was abandoned, I never thought to come across civilians in here," the man whistled in amused as he looked at the strangers one by one. "Man, you guys looked like you survived a nuclear attack."

Something inside Kira's brain must've clicked since the brown-haired Coordinator snapped his fingers and pointed at the intruder. "Lowe? Lowe Guele of Junk Guild?"

At the mention of his name, the man turned to the last stranger and his eyes went wide in recognition. "Kira? Kira Yamato! Oh man, is it really you?"

Both friends clasped their hands together and engulfed in a brotherly hug. "How are you, Lowe?"

"I've been great! I've heard you're getting married, so congratulations are in order?" The Natural slyly grinned at the blushing Coordinator.

A stern cough brought both friends back to reality. "I would hate to break a touching reunion, but we have a dire situation at hand," the silver-haired commander reminded everyone, casting another distrust look at their supposedly new ally. "Since you seemed to know where we are, mind sharing the information with us?"

The friendly Natural gave a questionable look. "You guys have no clue where your ship crash landed?" he queried, doubting the silver-haired.

"I wouldn't be asking if I knew," Yzak snappily remarked.

The Natural regarded his words before nodding in acceptance. "Well then you, my friend, have crash landed in the Australis Colony in Mars," Lowe answered with a cheeky smile.

Four Coordinators stared at the Natural with disbelief in their eyes. Naturally, finding out that they're stationed at the one place they least expected to be would rendered them in shock.

"...Did you just say…?"

"...Australis Colony…"

"...As in the colony…"

"…In the red planet _Mars_?!" Yzak screeched, finishing the statement for the rest in consternation.

"Yup," Lowe confirmed with a nod. "By the way, why _are_ you guys here? Shouldn't you be preparing for the wedding?"

Three Coordinators look at each other and communicated silently with their eyes. They nodded in agreement and finally turned to the one and only culprit who was to be held responsible for their current situation. All three glaring menacingly at the blonde Coordinator.

"H-hey wait a minute, guys!" Dearka nervously exclaimed with both hands raised, taking the obvious hint why his comrades were giving him the look.

"Damn you, Dearka!" Yzak screeched before attempting to launch a punch to the pitiful blonde captain.

All hell broke loose as Yzak charged blindly to attack but Kira and Athrun constrained him from attempting to murder their only blonde friend.

* * *

**.**

**.**

**.**

**Side Story:**

.

"Sir, you called for me?" Shiho Hahnenfuss, Yzak's most trusted subordinate besides his second commander and ace pilot, stood before him and saluted.

Yzak stared blankly at the brunette before him. After his encounter with the chairwoman earlier today, the Joule heir has been in constant irritation. In addition, he was stuck training incompetent soldiers for the rest of his morning. Hence, he was currently one very unhappy camper.

Every year a pool of recent graduates of the ZAFT Military Academy were assigned to various teams. This year was his first time training and meeting the group of rookie soldiers on his own within the first week they were assigned to the Joule Squadron. In the past years since he had been assigned as Commander, he relied on Dearka and Hahnenfuss to deal with the new leaves in hopes to give them the basic rules, procedures, and daily routines of how the team operates. Once the recruits were established and well-trained, he would then occasionally be present in the training grounds. In addition, he would acknowledge the new faces throughout the year—rarely by names, but mostly by their accomplishments—and would make some kind of bond with them (be it yelling or lauding at them).

This year, a certain General, specifically General Yeager, had commanded the young Commander to be present at one of their early trainings. Mind you, Yzak was a_ busy_ man. A busy man who neither has the luxury nor the time in teaching soldiers who he has not familiarized himself with. Unfortunately, the ones who would usually conduct the trainings of the rookies were not present. Dearka has been called to a meeting with the other ZAFT black coat captains and his ever reliable assistant, Hahnenfuss, was currently operating a training stimulation with the other Red Coats in his team. Honestly, he believed that the old man General Yeager had purposely made his most trusted subordinates busy so that the young commander had no choice but to comply with the General's order.

With the pressure and irritation of training newly recruits today, he became a walking demon. To show just how much he abhorred being with incapable soldiers, he had trained them without mercy taking no excuses. He remembered a certain incident that was the highlight of the training and couldn't help but to cringed in disgust at the memory.

"_Listen here, you maggots. Captain Elsman and Major Hahnenfuss are unable to conduct today's training exercise. I will be their replacement for this brief period of time," Yzak began, unfazed by the confused looks on many of the soldiers before him._

"_And who are you?" A cockily voice questioned from the crowd._

_Yzak quickly glared at the direction of where the bastard was currently located. The fool had the audacity to interrupt him let alone ask who he was. Whoever that soldier was, he would make sure that the name Yzak Joule was engraved finely inside the little tart's brain._

"_You, Soldier. Step forward and introduce yourself," Yzak coolly commanded, keeping his inner beast at bay until the righteous moment to strike at the bastard._

_An elite Red Coat soldier confidently walked passed the sea of green coats in front of him and stood tall and proud before mockingly saluting the commander with a smirk. "Sir, I am Lieutenant Stilt of the Joule Team."_

_Yzak observed the boy before him front top to bottom and scoffed. This soldier standing cockily in front of him is a prime example of why he leaves the verbal and physical training to his subordinates so that the latters can virtually suck all the air of inferiority that rookies like this buffoon are oozing with. _

_The White Coat Commander placed both hand behind his back and strolled around the younger lad. "Is that so? Interesting." He stopped to look at the crowd of rookies staring expectantly at him. "Listening up, soldiers! I am going to give you all a little demonstration with the help of Lieutenant Filth over here."_

"_It's Lieutenant Sti—"_

"_Did I give you permission to talk, Lieutenant?" Icy cold blue eyes glared daringly at the younger lad. _

"_Sir, no, sir," the younger man spat angrily but managed to still show respect to his superior._

_He could tell that the youngster was trying so hard to keep his emotion at bay. Yzak almost laughed out loud at the irony. He had once been a cocky inferior-complex soldier like the one before him. But after surviving two bloody wars, having seen the ugly sides of the both the military and politics, and witnessing many deaths of both his comrades and enemies at the tender age of sixteen and eighteen, he had become a wiser man. Not a better person, but wiser than he was before._

"_Good, this is a little demonstration I'd like to call…'How Commander Joule put an idiotic, cocky, S.O.B. in his place.'"_

"_Wha—"_

_Before the younger lad could comprehend anything he was grabbed by the hand within seconds, catching him off guard. And the next thing he knew, he was mercilessly pummeled to the ground. Both of his hands were constraint behind him with such strong grip that he could not even move a centimeter in resistant. _

"_Listen well, you little cocky crook of a filthy worm. If I find you pulling that stunt in front of me once more, I will boot you off to the next kin of concentration camp in the USSA and make you do manual labor for months with only one loaf of bread and a half ass bottle of water as your meal for one very long week. You will be deprive of shelter and I will make sure that you sleep in a pile of shit as your mattress since you're full of shit yourself. In addition, I will toss your sorry ass in Area 3 with a bloodthirsty bulldog that the ZAFT military has secretly trained to maul and ruthlessly kill humans and within a blink of an eye your sorry worthless life with scum so low that you will die in the hands of a mutt. Do you understand me, Soldier?" He whispered coldly next to the lad's ear._

_The Red Coat visibly gulped, clearly realizing his mistake and nodded. "S-sir, yes, sir."_

"_I can't hear you soldier. Mind speaking up you worthless scum." His hold on the younger man's hands tightened._

"_Sir, yes, sir!" the Red Coat cried out loud. _

"_Very well," Yzak said, releasing his hold on. "Now get your ass back in line!" The young soldier didn't need to be told twice as he was already making his way towards his spot._

"_Now," he began, looking back at the now frightened crowd. "Let's get this training started with, shall we?"_

Seeing the flabbergasted looks on their faces made him felt a little smug. Good. They should be. The shock after discovering that the one who was leading their training was their one and only commander was almost comical. And within thirty minutes into their training, the newly recruits finally understood why Commander Joule was dubbed as 'The Slave Driving Demon' by many. The man showed no hesitation and ruled with an iron fist. Even his icy glares has sent some of them to tears. A ruthless and merciless Commander was something that the soldiers did not want to piss off. They did what every good soldiers would do, obey and never question an order for a commander's command was absolute. Every single one of them heed to his demands without questions.

After three long, gruesome, and strenuous hours with the newly appointed ZAFT soldiers, Yzak quickly dismissed them off to lunch with a dismissive wave which the young soldiers immediately did not hesitate to escape from the clutches of their demonic commanding officer.

And now here is the particular woman, the main source of all of his irritation, standing a mere few feet away and was giving him a rather peculiar look.

"Sir?" The brunette called, bringing the young commander's attention back to hers.

"Yes, I did," the Joule heir said, frowning. Why did he call her again?

"Is something the matter, Sir?" The Red Coat subordinate asked, furrowing her brows together.

"Read my schedule for the rest the day," he snappily commanded. He didn't know why he requested such an odd thing from her but his mind suddenly went conspicuously blank all of the sudden. To uphold his proud image as a ruthless and flawless commander, he needed to amend his sudden moment of being spaciously silent. And the only thing that popped out from his mind was his schedule for the duration of the day.

"Sir, at 1400 hours you have a meeting with General Yeager regarding the new recruits assigned to the team. At 1530 hours you have a team meeting with Commander Yamato, Commander Arqulet, and Commander Ulrica along with their squadrons about the training stimulation at Carpentaria Base next week. At 1745 hours you have a video conference with Orb's officials. At 1855 hours you will have dinner. Today they are serving meatloaf with a side of fresh rolls and mash potato, a side of salad, a choice of cranberry juice, orange juice, mineral water, or sparkling flavored water of either lemon or raspberry, and finally for desert you have a choice of a slice of cheesecake or chocolate gnash. After dinner, at 1900 hours you will have your daily routine of checkups on the artillery units at the hangar. Finally at 2130 hours you will end your day with a cup of tea at your office before leaving for the rest of the day," Shiho biblically recited his agenda without hesitation.

Being reminded of his busy schedule made the Joule heir cringed in distaste. From the looks of it, he was to be stuck at meetings once again. It wasn't the fact that he loathed meetings (perhaps just a tad bit), it was more of the verifiable truth that almost half of the other commanders are incapable of executing their jobs properly. For lack of a better word; they're stupid. There, he admitted it. With a handful of few exceptions (Yamato included), he considered the rest of the old potentates offensively idiotic. "Right," he muttered as he remembered begrudgingly.

"Is there anything else you'd like me to do, Sir?" his assistant offered, quirking a brow up.

"Where did you go last Saturday?" he animatedly blurted out of the blue. He had now remembered the very reason why he suddenly called his loyal assistant to his office. Subconsciously, his mouth worked faster than his brain could process which resulted in spilling out the question out of character in hopes of not forgetting it again.

The brunette blinked. By the looks of it, she was quite caught off guard by his sudden question. Yzak cursed under his breath. So much for asking coolly.

"Sir?"

"You heard me loud and clear, Hahnenfuss," he spat out, flustered. No way in hell was he going to repeat that obscure question.

She went silent at first. After a few seconds has lapsed—potentially trying to get over her initial shock—she answered him. "I was working that day. With you, sir," she accentuated the the last part. By her tone of voice, she sounded as if she's talking with a mentally handicapped person in which Yzak found very insulting. "Would you like me to write a full report on what I did during my work hours on Saturday, Sir?"

"No, I don't want a goddamn report on what you did at work last Saturday, Hahnenfuss!" The hot-tempered officer barked out.

"Then I'm afraid I am not quite understanding your question, sir," she replied, unfazed by her commanding officer's sudden raise in volume.

"Goddamn it, Hahnenfuss! Would you stop—"

"Er, pardon the intrusion, Commander," a soft spoken voice awkwardly called out, oblivious of the presently tension in the air.

Two pairs of eyes turned to look at the newcomer who was hovering across the threshold in surprised. Yzak was the first one to initially recover from his and suddenly glared icily at the unwanted intruder.

"Who the hell are you and what do you want, Soldier?!" He roared out loud. The poor Green Coat shivered and flinched in fright. "Can't you see I'm in the middle of something?!"

"Um…er…sir…I'm Lieutenant McIntyre…C-Commander B-Bristle….s-sent…" the lad nervously began, stammering.

"Oh, for the love of PLANT speak up you stuttering mutt!" The impatient Joule heir roared once again as his glare multiplied tenfold.

"C-Commander Bristle sent me here to p-pick up the documents he requested f-from you, sir!" The Green Coat managed to say, amusing Shiho to no end.

Yzak went quiet. That's right, Commander Bristle did send him a message via e-mail earlier that he was going to send in his assistant to pick up some documents. Yzak's sharp eyes scanned his desk until they located the targeted files and grabbed them. He motioned the soldier to come hither towards him which the latter quickly complied. Yzak handed the soldier the documents and the Green Coat lowered his gaze, an action that was duly noted by the White Coat, and bowed deeply to the superior officer.

"T-thank you, sir!"

"Now get the hell out of my office! Next time your commander sent you, knock the goddamn door you imbecile!"

"Sir, yes, sir!" The newly recruited Green Coat saluted looking quite pale before practically scurrying out of the door. Two pairs of eyes stared at the retreated soldier, one with amused, another with a look of irritation.

"Hahnenfuss, why is it whenever others talk to me, they won't look at me in the eyes?" Yzak distractedly asked frowning, looking at his reliable assistant with genuine wonder.

"Sir, perhaps it's your irascible rash demeanor that makes others tend to avoid you, sir," the Hahnenfuss heiress unequivocally pointed out. After serving under the silver-haired Commander since the day she graduated from the ZAFT Military Academy, she grew accustom to his fits and hot-tempered persona. Hence, over the years she became boldly vocal about her opinions to him.

"So what you're saying is that they're afraid of me," he flatly surmised, taking a bit offense to the brunette's blunt words.

"Sir, it's up to you to decide how you want to take my words. After all you did asked for my opinion, sir." she replied, shrugging indifferently.

"Hahnenfuss."

"Sir?"

"I suggest you shut up."

The brunette didn't reply but gave him a small smugly smile. The silver-haired gritted his teeth in annoyed.

"Go fetch me the documents that Yamato finished for me," he ordered all of the sudden, hoping to shoo her away since he was now mildly annoyed by her presence.

When he heard no response from the Red Coat subordinate, he looked up and gave her miffed look. "Aren't you going to reply to me?" He demanded, expectantly waiting for any acknowledgement on whether or not she understood his order.

Shiho looked at him blankly and gave him a shrug. "I believe earlier you told me to 'shut up.' I thought I was incline to follow your order, sir," she politely reminded him.

Something inside of him snapped. He stood up from his seat and banged a fist on his desk. "Oh for the love of the ZAFT force, get out!" He snapped in irritation, pointing towards the threshold that was the only connection to his solitary domain and the rest of the ZAFT Military Headquarters.

Yzak could've sworn he saw the damn irritating witch slightly smirking at him before returning to her expressionless façade and saluted. "Sir, yes, sir." She pranced out of his room within seconds and left him to a solitary confinement.

The Joule heir exhaled a long dragged breath—he didn't even realized that he was holding one—and slowly sat back down on his chair. Evidently, the silver-haired Commander had not been expecting to be outwitted and retaliated by the woman.

It finally dawned to him that the cunning woman managed to escape from answering his true intention of calling her to his office in the first place. Damn that Green Coat to the pit of hell for distracting his interrogation. He made a mental note to send a message to Commander Bristle to never let that Green Coat step foot in his office ever again.

Yzak mentally slapped himself before muttering a colorful choice of words under his breath. He hastily got up and ran out of his door to chase down the irritably cunning woman.

.

Outside the man-free zone office, ZAFT soldiers of all rankings were peacefully performing their duties and going about their ways. Some were sociably greeting each other while others were saluting superior officers as they passed by. The peace was suddenly disturbed by a certain silver-haired commander as he begrudgingly marched down the hall. Many soldiers recognized the commander and went pale. The dark and gloomy aura surrounding the man was not unnoticed by many and those who were in his way parted to the side like the Red Sea, allowing the angry commander to quickly pinpoint his target ahead of him.

"HAHNENFUSS GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE RIGHT THIS MINUTE! I AM _NOT_ DONE WITH YOU!" The commander roared impatiently, causing many of the innocent soldiers to flinched and quickly scurried off. Some stayed out of his way but decided to remain where they are, eager to find out the drama that was about to unfold in front of them.

"I cannot, Sir. You've sent me on an errand, remember?" The sole culprit of the silver-haired commander sudden irritation calmly reminded as she continued her way to her destination.

"WELL I REVOKED THAT REQUEST! I REQUIRED YOUR PRESENCE IN MY OFFICE!_ NOW_!"

The brunette ignored the commander in which the bystanders around them could've sworn that the White Coat snapped mentally out loud.

"DON'T YOU DARE IGNORE ME, WOMAN OR I WILL DEMOTE YOU TO GARBAGE DISPOSAL DUTY FOR A MONTH!" He threatened darkly, quickening his pace to catch up.

"You know very well that you are in need of my assistance, Sir. If I were to be gone, who is going to replace me? Surely not Captain Elsman?" She chimed tauntingly.

The cunning minx had him practically wrapped around her fingers.

And so, our very angry commander trailed—correction_, stomped_—behind his Red Coat subordinate as he yelled out colorful words along with threatening demands until they've finally reached the latter's destination.

Poor Kira had to witness a heated gruesome exchange between an irritated White Coat and his calmly expressionless assistant until the White Coat finally decided he had enough because he had ran out of breath. He said a few colorful parting words to the brunette—forgetting to acknowledge the owner of the office—and tore down the other commander's door out of spite as he marched out of the room.

After being silent for quite sometimes, Kira finally decided to speak out. "Shiho, what was that about?" The White Coat Commander asked warily looking at the Red Coat brunette in wonder.

Shiho shook her head and smiled knowingly. "It was nothing, sir, nothing at all."

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**A/N:** Meh, I wasn't so sure about this chapter but hey, this was one long chapter to write. I read in Gundam Wiki that there was a colony in Mars most notably the Australis colony. From what I read, it was a safe haven for many Coordinators and Naturals who wished to escape the war on earth and PLANTs. I'd figure since the Mars colony was almost never mentioned in the series, I might as well put it to good use since by the looks of it, the boys had never stepped foot on Mars yet. I was unsure about the time differences amongst PLANTs, Mars, and Earth, but let's just say for the sake of this fanfic that the time differences scale is not that big. I know I put Shinn somewhere in god knows where but I can assure you, without spoiling, he's fine, for now (hehe). The plot structure is going to be in a series of flashbacks so please bear with me!

I've created a lot of OCs to filter this story. So no worries, those characters are purely from my imaginaton.

For my silent readers out there, it would help me out tremendously if you were to leave a review about what you think about the story so far. I just need some feedbacks and opinions on what you all think about the whole plot and perhaps what adventure I may write next. Till next time!

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**tinylittlerobots-** Thank you so much for being the first one to review! Haha I'll keep that idea in mind!

**Lenora Jime-** Thanks for reviewing! I'm trying to not go overboard on their adventure since I'm trying to make it realistically possible for them to be crazy for one night!

**fhkes-** Thanks for reviewing! I'm glad you like it!

**blackberrymint**\- Thanks for reviewing! Any ideas on what adventure the boys should do? I'm open for opinions!


	3. Chapter 3

**A Series of Unfortunate Events**

Chapter 3

foureyesfreak27

**Summary:** Post-GSD. In which a bachelor's party was destined to go downhill from the start…

**Disclaimer:** I do not own GS/GSD.

**Character(s):** Kira Yamato, Athrun Zala, Dearka Elsman, Yzak Joule, and Shinn Asuka.

**Warning**: This chapter has not been fully proofread yet. Please excuse any grammatical errors.

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**October Seven, October City PLANTs**

The Hut, Billiard, Bar and Lounge

_Yesterday; 1852 hours_

**.**

"How in the world did Dearka managed to persuade Yzak into drinking?" Athrun wondered out loud in amazement. His eyes cannot believe what they were seeing. The said silver-head was chugging down the umpteenth glass of beer—he had lost track of count after his sixth glass—and was surprisingly still holding against this blonde friend.

"Is it even legal to be drunk at this time?" Shinn asked, curiously. The youngest one in the group seldom drinks out at night, hence, his lack of knowledge about pubs and bars. He had wisely decided to keep it on the down low proclaimed to be the designated sober ally in the group. The Destiny pilot figured that out of the five of them, he would most likely be the one who would survive the night with his memories still intact by tomorrow.

The Ultimate Coordinator shook his head in disagreement. "I'm not worried about Dearka. I'm more worried about Yzak. From the looks of it, he has very low tolerant of alcohol." Kira professed, looking quite worried for their silver-haired companion. Both Athrun and Shinn nodded in agreement.

The three men were sitting on the farthest side of the bar peacefully slipping their drinks as they witnessed the crowd hovering around their other two male companions across the bar. They shrewdly decided to opt out of the drinking match and discreetly watch from afar, witnessing their prideful fair-headed friend go head to head with the barely sober blonde Coordinator.

"_Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug_!" The energetic crowd encouraged chantingly as they boisterously laughed at the two men binging their drinks.

The silver-haired sloppily grabbed hold of another full glass and raised it up. "Imp gnot gonna rose to vou, Elshman," Yzak slurry vowed, determinedly. By the looks of it, their silver-haired companion was about to pass out any minute now. But his shirr will to prevail had his body stubbornly complied with his wish. His flushed face and hazy eyes were telltales of his drunken state, and it was still and wonder to his friend how he could still manage to keep up with the enigmatic blonde.

Dearka chuckled humorously. "Well, there, buddy! I'm surprised you're holding it off for this long," the blonde Captain confessed, smirking his trademark smirk. He chugged down a glass of beer and slammed the glass back down, wiping his mouth with the back of his dominant hand. "But sorry, Yzak. I'm going to win this battle." Unlike Yzak, Dearka has a very high tolerant of alcohol. Amongst the company, the blonde frequent the bars on weekends with the other members of the Joule Squadron to celebrate their survival of another long torturous week they'd withstand under Yzak's command. It was a no brainer that Dearka has the confident to win and his three other very sober companions had to agree with his bold statement.

"I believe this is Dearka's ploy to loosen up Yzak," Athrun muttered observingly as he frowned. A smart tactics for Dearka's part but he honestly pitied the poor silver-haired for falling for the trick.

Kira frowned at the possible reason. "That's not nice." Although they may be Coordinators, they are still human. Although the liver, a human's viable organ, can hold so much liquor intake by its owner, it's not something that can be taken advantage of regardless of genetic makeup.

"Should we stop them, Commander?" Shinn suggested. Although he may find it a bit amusing, seeing the 'Slave Driving Demon' quite drunk, he couldn't bear to see the prideful man fall pitifully from drinking excessively. Oh, how'd he pay to see the looks on the Joule Team faces if they see their demonic commander in this state, it's almost comical.

Kira had long given up on correcting his subordinate about addressing him so formally. He merely shook his head once again. "No, I believe if we intervene, Yzak is just going to go berserk on us."

"I value my life too much to let it die in the hands of a drunken Yzak," Athrun jokingly added, taking another sip of his beer.

Shinn sighed out loud. "How did they end up like this anyways?"

"_A bar?" Kira parroted as he followed shortly behind the blonde. Everyone else was dutifully following the blonde's leadership as they walked through the busy street of town in October Seven._

"_Yes, a bar," Dearka repeated, chuckling at his bewildered expression. _

"_Why a bar? And this early in the evening?" Athrun warily inquired. He wasn't liking where things were heading. Drinking this early in the evening had already set his siren blaring as a warning in the back of his head._

_The silver-head snorted. "For once, I agree with Zala," Yzak piped next to the blue-haired, glaring at the blonde. "Drinking this early defeats the whole purpose of having your definition of 'fun' Elsman."_

"_Relax, just a few sip to get the energy flowing inside you dead bodies," Dearka assured them with a wink, sending the rest of his companions to a sudden quick stop before continuing on forth._

"_I don't usually drink, Captain," muttered the youngest one in the group. Dearka looked at the boy beside him and slung an arm around his neck. A hand knuckled the youngster in the head in which the latter protested with squatting his arm to pry off the blonde's hold._

"_Aw, don't you worry buddy, you're gonna thank me later." Shinn only responded with skeptical look but nonetheless he choose to stay silent._

"_This is so stupid," Yzak finally remarked angrily. "Are you planning to get us drunk before anything actually happen?"_

_Dearka quirked a brow towards Yzak. "Someone is impatient."_

"_I am not impatient!" Yzak roared in protest, following a shade of tint on his face from his heated frustration._

"_And angry," he added tauntingly._

"_This is stupid, I should've gone home," the silver-haired muttered, turning away from the rest of the company to start walking the opposite direction._

_Dearka sighed as he inwardly shrugged his shoulders. "Well then I guess you're a chicken."_

_The Joule heir froze mid-way. He slowly turned his head to glare darkly at the culprit who insulted him, emitting an ominous aura in which his other companions frighteningly stepped away as the said silver-haired closed his distance from the blonde. "What…did you call me, Elsman?"_

"_You heard me, Yzak. A C-H-I-C-K-E-N," the Elsman heir repeated tauntingly, smirking at the expression his friend was sending him. _

_Athrun, Kira, and Shinn did not known whether or not their blonde friend sane enough to warrant off his own death wish. A look of horror surfaced on their faces as the Yzak's mood visibly darkened._

"_Hey, Dearka, quit it," Athrun wisely advised him, sending a disapproving look at his blonde friend. Although he finds the blonde rather childish in serious situations, he's certainly pushing Yzak's button._

_Dearka paid no heed to Athrun's warning and continued his taunt to the silver-haired. "It doesn't matter. If he's gone, he can't challenge me to a drinking battle."_

"_A drinking battle?" Shinn echoed in confusion._

_The blonde solemnly nodded. "You see, two weeks ago, I took the good ole commander to this bar and we somehow ended up in a drinking battle. And of course, I won. Yzak's is just a sore loser. Man, I was hoping that he'd challenge me again," Dearka playfully sighed in resignation as he cast a knowing look towards the now seething silver-haired. _

_Yzak stalked closer in front of Dearka and pointed an accusing finger at him. "You! Fine! I challenge you to a drinking battle! If I win—and mark my word I will beat you until you cry your losing ass to the pit of hell—you will be demoted to a desk job for a week!"_

_The good captain shrugged indifferently, unfazed by the possible consequence of the outcome. "Fine by me, I'd rather be behind the desk than being slave driven by you."_

_Yzak clicked his tongue in irritation, annoyed that his threat was quickly being dismissed by the idiotic blonde. "Alright then, I will ship you off to Gibraltar Base instead and station you there for a full month and you will be waved from having any vacations," Yzak triumphantly smirked as he fold his arms. With this, he sure will be shaken up. This means no more romantic sappy dates with his Natural girlfriend for a month._

"_You wouldn't," Dearka dared, narrowing his eyes as the threat had finally dawned to him._

"_Oh, I would," he darkly replied with unrecognizable mischief gleaming in his eyes._

_Kira looked back from one Coordinator to the other. "Uh, guys?" he hesitantly called. But the two friends were engrossed with their conversation that they paid no attention to their other three companions._

"_It's on, buddy," the blonde challenged, shaking his friend's hand, sealing their agreement. "If I win, I have a week _paid_ leave and you cannot call me back under no circumstances unless it's a state of emergency."_

"_Fine," Yzak spat. "Deal."_

_All of the sudden, Yzak turn his dark glare to one of the three ignored companion, noticeably at Athrun. "You, too, Zala!"_

_Athrun looked confused. "Me?" he parroted._

"_Yes you, you dimwit! You're doing this, too! I won't forget the humiliation that you put me through the last time!"_

_Kira glanced at his best friend in puzzlement. "What does he mean by that?"_

_Athrun sighed, reminiscing the vague memory of last month's event. Oh, _that_. In all honestly, he truly had forgotten about it. "Ah, he meant that time."_

"_What happened last time?" Shinn piped with interest. It was rare to see the said blue-haired looking quite troubled. _

"_He was visiting Orb with Dearka last month. And Dearka had this grand plan of making Yzak challenge me into a drinking match," he explained to the third party, grimacing at the memory of the outcome._

"_You won," Kira stated, venturing the obvious. The hostility in Yzak's demand was not unfathomed by the brown-haired Coordinator._

_Athrun reluctantly nodded as he idly scratched a mild itch on his nape. "Yes, I did. Now I'm beginning to regret it since I'm being dragged into this mess."_

"_If I win, Zala, you will bow down to me! Acknowledge me that I'm better than you!" Yzak roared with determination, pointing an accusing index finger at the blue-haired._

"_Um, I'd rather not," the blue-haired muttered in disdain, dismissing the one-sided rivalry._

"_You have no say in this, Zala! Come on, Dearka! We're going in!" Yzak heatedly demanded as he stomped inside the pub._

"_Alright! Let's get this party started!" The blonde cheered excitedly as he trailed behind the heated silver-haired._

_Kira blinked owlishly at the departed men. "Anou, Athrun, I believe Yzak was serious."_

_The blue-haired Admiral sighed. "You don't say?"_

"Why aren't you with them, Athrun?" Shinn inquired, nodding towards the rowdy crowd who was getting obnoxiously louder by the minute.

The Orb Admiral shook his head. "I gave up after halfway through my third glass. Plus, from the looks of it, they were too engross to notice I left."

Ever since they've met at the Academy, Yzak had self-professed himself as Athrun's rival—which was more of a one-sided one—and in everything from graduation ranking to eating a boxful of marshmallows had been a competition for his silver-haired friend. Athrun wisely learned to keep his mouth shut and simply continued to participate in whatever schemes Yzak would make him do. It was rather a tiresome thing to keep up lately as they got older.

A loud celebration was heard from the crowd and the three friends sharply turned their attentions to them.

"_Whoo hoo_! I won! Take that, Yzak!" Dearka exclaimed in celebration, raising his glass in the air as he stood up from his seat in victory.

A chorus of cheers erupted from the crowd as they congratulate the blonde from his accomplishment. The flushed blonde nodded his head. "Thank you, thank you!" He mocked a few lowly bows to his audience and proceeded to finish his last glass at hand.

"Where is Yzak?" Kira cogitated apprehensively. He instantly got up from his seat and made his way to the rowdy group, pushing people to the side as he tried to find his way towards his unseen blonde friend. Athrun and Shinn hotly trailed behind him.

"Yzak!" Kira gasped. He found the silver-haired commander whose face was flushed red with his head beat on top of the table. From the looks of it, the Joule heir had clearly passed out from the binge drinking. "Shinn! Help me get Yzak up!" His subordinate's underling instinct kicked in and quickly complied for he immediately grabbed the silver-haired by the arms and slung it over his shoulder. With the help of Kira, he haply hauled the fainted man out of the bar. Athrun made it his unofficial job to get hold of his blonde friend who was victoriously celebrating his achievement.

"Dearka!" Athrun hissed sharply. "Get down from there!"

The blonde was too immerse with his current activity—which was tap dancing on top of the table, a hidden skill that Athrun was unaware the blonde possessed —and was enticed by the clamorous horde around him. The blonde happily complied with all the attention that he was receiving and continued on.

"Dearka!" The blue-haired hissed once more in urgent but no response came from the blonde. "That's it, we're getting out of here!" He grabbed the mildly intoxicated blonde by the arm, causing him to lose his balance, and dragged him from the group.

"Aw, c'mon Athrun! It was getting to the good part," he pouted, whiningly.

"Thanks to you, Yzak is practically half dead, we're getting out," Athrun finalized, glaring at the barely drunk blonde who just rolled his eyes.

"Aw, but it was his fault!" he protested.

"I don't care whose fault it was, we are done here!"

"Fine, but we're off to our next stop!" he announced in an ungodly cheer, escaping from Athrun's clutch.

The Orb Admiral sighed in frustration and shook his head, praying that their next destination it wasn't another bar as he reluctantly trailed behind the troublesome blonde.

**.**

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**Australis Colony, Mars**

Outside the Wrecked ZAFT Shuttle

_Present Day; 0614 hours, (approx. 13 hours until the wedding)_

_._

"You know, your ship is currently being hunted by the Martian Armed Force." Lowe stated as a matter of factually. The former had helped the four Coordinators escaped from their wrecked ship. The Martian weather was quite different from what they've experienced in PLANTs and in Earth, especially the gravity. The group wisely followed the Natural back to his jeep knowing that their only hope and transpiration in getting out this deserted area was from the latter's aid.

"What do you mean by that?" Kira incredulously asked out loud. The Martian Armed Force? How in the world did they managed to tangle themselves with the Mars Military?

"You do realize that your guys trespassed this area without authority?" It was more of a statement rather than a question. Lowe looked at the Coordinators with a quirked brow, waiting for any explanation.

The Coordinators blinked. That's right, they've trespassed to a neutral nation. Considering how none of them had any close acquaintances in the Martian Council or any high ranking officials for that matters, it will cause a hefty dilemma. Especially since they're soldiers.

Now how are they supposed to explain their situation to the Martian's leader? Like they'll believe the true story of how four drunken high ranking officials of the ZAFT and Orb Military Forces just happened to stole a ship and crash landed in their territory without any recollection of their journey. Sure, that'll boot them off to jail and be demoted of their ranks in their respective military.

"So what should we do?" Kira inquired worriedly. If this means some diplomatic chaos then he'll definitely feel guilty of putting Lacus in a difficult position.

"No worries, Kira. I'm sure if we go to the Martian Council, we can sort it out. The Supreme Leader is a Coordinator after all," Lowe reminded them.

"Right," he muttered at the reminder.

"In the meantime, do you guys have anywhere to go? Like any friends you can crash?"

"Well considering we've crash landed, we aren't quite welcome here, Natural," Yzak remarked flatly.

"I see. Well why don't you guys rest over at my place? I'm sure you all must be famished. And I do have some painkillers for your headaches." He examined the hangovers individuals behind him once more and winced. "And I believe you'll be needing to shower since you guys have paint all over you. And some new clothes."

Kira gave his Natural friend a grateful smile. "We appreciate your hospitality, Lowe."

"I'm glad to help," the rusty-haired friend grinned cheekily. "I just wonder how in the world did you guys managed to crash in Mars of all places."

"Oh, crap," Athrun muttered out of the blue, mentally slapping himself.

"What is it, Athrun?" Dearka queried, looking at the blue-haired Coordinator who stopped trailing behind them.

"I remembered."

"Remembered what?" Kira prompted with interest.

"How we got that stupid ship to end up here. And if my memory served me correctly, I believe we sort of shipped Shinn somewhere on Earth…"

"Explain, Zala," Yzak commanded in a condescending tone. Athrun didn't have the energy in fighting back, instead he just nodded and continued to explain his reminiscent of their escapade.

"Well… I don't exactly remembered how we got the shuttles, all I remembered was how we got shot down...from what I can recall…"

"_Haha! I can't believe we did it! We actually stole the shuttle!" Dearka bawled out in disbelief._

_A drunken Athrun wobbled his way towards Kira who was carelessly piloting the ship. "You 'kay, Kira?" Athrun sloppily asked his friend, patting him on the shoulder._

_An intoxicated Kira stole a glance next to him. His incomprehensively vision was blurring his best friend's image before him. "Athrun! Hi! I'm fine! You see! I'm driving!" He said in an ungodly cheering voice._

"_Where's Asuka?" Yzak hazily wondered out loud._

"_Oh, Shinn? I shipped him off to somewhere with the other shuttle." Dearka explained, smirking at the memory of practically throwing the young soldier inside the shuttle alone._

_The intoxicated silver-haired commander slowly nodded, not quite comprehending the information. "To where?"_

"_Somewhere on Earth. He told me to surprise him so I activated the autopilot for the shuttle to ship his drunken self somewhere fun!" Dearka slurred happily. _

"_Say where are we heading anyways?" Athrun inquired as he sloppily sat himself to the seat next to Kira._

_The Ultimate Coordinator glanced at the GPS. "Hmm, I dunno, but right now this ship was supposedly heading towards…Mars?"_

"_Alright! Head over there buddy! I've never been to Mars before!"_

_Kira saluted the blonde with a tipsy grin. "You got it, Dearka!"_

_._

Everyone went silent.

"…S-o, what happened after that?" Kira cajoled, breaking the quiet atmosphere.

"Um, well, I believe we were chased by the Martians soon after," Athrun sheepishly confessed.

.

"_**This is the Martian Armed Force! ZAFT Air Shuttle ZT713 we implore you to halt all combats and quickly disembark from your ship! If you fail to comply with our wish, we will utilize our force!"**_

"_Go! Go! Go!"_

"_Ahahaha! Eat that, motherfucka!"_

"_How the hell did we do that?"_

"_I dunno, but this is fun!"_

"_**I repeat, ZAFT Air Shuttle ZT713, you have trespassed into an unauthorized Australis Colony territory. Please stop all activity and disembark your ship this immediately!"**_

"_What did he say?"_

"_Something about territory."_

"_I dunno but keep dodging, buddy!"_

"_Kira, drive properly damn it!"_

"_**Once again, halt your action and cooperate with us ZAFT Air Shuttle ZT713! We are not afraid to utilize our weapons against you!"**_

"_Hey! I think they said to keep going? Something about weapons and stuff?"_

"_Whoa, nice move there, Kira!"_

"_Who are they and why are they after us?"_

"_Is this part of your plan, Dearka?"_

"_I dunno, but this is one hell of a ride!"_

"_**This is your last chance! I repeat, this is your last chance to surrender ZAFT Air Shuttle ZT713! Or else we will use force against you!"**_

"_Goddamn it, leave us alone!"_

"_Who the hell are they anyways?"_

"_Too slow idiots!"_

Boom!

"_Aw, shit, did they just took a shot at us?"_

"_What the hell is their problem?!"_

"_Stop hovering over me, damn it!"_

Boom!

"_Tch! They're shooting at us! Holy crap!"_

"_Damn Elsman! Stop shouting in my ear!"_

"_They missed!"_

"_No, you idiot, they hit the raft!"_

"_Whoa, look at that hole."_

Boom!

"_Shit, did they just shot the engine?"_

"_Zala, get off of me!"_

"_I'm losing control guys!"_

"_Hey watch out for that mountain!"_

"_Stop distracting me!"_

"_Ow, that was my foot, you dumbass!"_

"_You stop shoving!"_

"_Hey, quit that!"_

"_Guys, stop distracting me!"_

"_Kira, WATCH OUT!"_

_._

Athrun glanced at his friend after telling his story. The three Coordinators stared at the blue-haired flabbergasted at what they just heard.

"Holy shit," was all Dearka could say as he blinked owlishly. "Are you serious?" His voice laced with disbelief.

"Did we really just had a fleet of Martian Armed Force tailing us?" Yzak muttered to himself in a clipped tone.

"Oh, wow," Lowe managed to say after hearing the story. "That's one hell of a story, man."

"So, what do we do now?" Kira coyly asked. He felt like kicking himself. He still couldn't believe that that event actually happened. Somehow, the guilty conscience within him was eating him up. He now vaguely recalled yesterday's fiasco.

"Well now we should head over to my place and get you clean up." Lowe gulped as he anxiously scratched the back of his nape, dreading to say the next step. "And then we'll visit the Martian Council to justify your actions."

The four Coordinators merely nodded in agreement for they too were speechless and mutely followed the Natural inside his vehicle.

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Shortly after the boys cleaned up, Lowe had left along with Kira and Athrun to sort out the mess that they were in, leaving Dearka and Yzak at his place. Kira adamantly asserted Yzak that he should be the one who negotiate with the Martian Council and explain to their leader what happened since the whole fiasco was about him. Athrun tagged along since he was part of the Orb Military and wanted to assure them that Orb was by no means starting anything with the Martians. Yzak insisted on coming with but Kira somehow managed to convince his silver-haired friend to rest for he was the one who suffered the most from excessive drinking amongst the four of them.

"I can feel you staring at me, Dearka," Yzak muttered darkly, his eyes never leaving the book that he found on top of the coffee table that caught his interest earlier.

Dearka blinked, snapping out of his bold gawking at Yzak's right side appearance. "Ah, was I staring at you again? Sorry, buddy. It's just…wow. I'm awed by your boldness. I would have never thought that you'd be the type to get piercings, Yzak."

This was why he wanted to come with, Yzak bitterly thought to himself. If he were to go with the others earlier, he wouldn't be stuck alone with the troublesome blonde who irked the living crap out of him right this moment.

Something inside the silver-haired snapped. He glared menacingly at the blonde beside him. He knew that sooner or later he'd snap at his friend but right the said blonde pushed his button way too far. "You…you…THIS IS ALL YOUR GODDAMN FAULT!"

The tanned blonde's eyes widen and inched away from the enraged Coordinator. "My fault? How is you getting an ear pierced my fault?" He echoed incredulously.

After being friends with the Joule heir for as long as he could remember, Dearka should be immune to Yzak's pugnacious behavior, especially when angered. But when being accused on something he didn't commit—or have any recollection of doing—he can't help but to retaliate defensively.

"I vaguely recall anything last night, let alone agreeing to get piercings!" He cantankerously seethed, pointing at the revolting objects on his ear. "This! Why would I get these stupid things on my ear?! There's only one person to blame here and it is you!"

Dearka furrowed his brows in annoyed. "Now wait just a minute, Yzak. Just because I planned this out, does not mean that your mistakes are my fault."

Before the group left, Kira wisely advised Dearka to not mention the red tattoo that was presently on Yzak's face. They believed that if it were to be brought up or even mentioned, the silver-haired would go berserk and kill them all. Dearka wholeheartedly agree, for he valued his life and would not face the wrath of his commanding officer. Athrun, Kira, and Dearka all agreed to bring it up once they arrive to PLANTs safely. Judging by how the silver-haired react to his newly piercings, he was not thrilled let alone amused by the newly additions to his body. And to be quite frank, the Joule heir was oblivious that he bore a tattoo on his face and his three companions would like to keep it that way for a temporary duration before they go home. Besides, ignorance is a bliss.

"This was all your stupid idea. I can't believe we're stuck in this situation," Yzak bitterly remarked.

"Hey now, I may be the reasoned behind us being drunk, but it was not my plan for us to somehow wind up in Mars," the blonde retorted, slightly getting angered by the accusation.

Yzak prompted stood up, his book was long forgotten as it slipped down to the floor. He clenched his fist as the boiling anger escalated faster inside. It was already too late for his body worked faster than what his mind could processed. "Bastard!" He launched a fast punch onto the blonde's face. Dearka may be a Coordinator, but being caught off guard and let alone fighting against another Coordinator made it virtually impossible to dodge the attack.

"Son of a bitch! What was that for?!" Dearka screeched in mixture of anger and disbelief. He cupped his newly bruised eye as he glared at the blonde with his good one.

"Oh shut the hell up, would you? You deserve it!"

Within a millisecond, the blonde retaliated and with his genetically enhanced speed he fist a hand and knuckled punch the silver-hair on his right eye.

"Goddamn it, Elsman?! What the hell?!"

"That's for punching me in the face, you asshole! Did you ever think that I already don't feel like shit right now?! Hell, one of us went AWOL for all I know and thanks to this crap, Kira and Athrun had to diplomatically reason with the Martian Council to justify this all! I'm sorry! There I said it! I'm sorry for putting us in this stupid situation! I suck at leadership! There! I admit it! But if you for one second think that I'm not liable for my actions then think again! I'm a goddamn soldier just like you and I am not stupid to not know if it's not my fault so cut the crap!"

As much as Yzak hates to admit, he was rendered speechless by the bold sincere concession that Dearka had said. For as long as he's been friends with the blonde, he had always been the jester of the squad. He would always remind calm, joke in the ungodly awkward situations, and remain apathetic towards duties as a captain. Seldom did he ever lose his temper and composure and right now was one of the rare moments he's witnessing Dearka's vulnerability. He recalled a memory of a time when his blonde friend had been dangerously calm when a Coordinator had attacked his Natural girlfriend out on the street. Although the war was long over, the hatred between the Naturals and the Coordinators was still seldom lingering in the world. Fortunately, the police force had made it just in time to stop the blonde from beating up the Coordinator to plump and the fact that he was in a civilian attire was a bonus since he was off duty as a ZAFT soldier. Yzak had ordered the blonde to be on a week period leave to allow him to spend time with his traumatized girlfriend. It was the first time Yzak had seen the vulnerability the blonde had possessed regarding his loved one.

A long pause fell between the two friends as they gathered their composure together.

"Next time you tried to intentionally get me drunk, warned me beforehand," Yzak said, breaking the silence. A subtle form of his apology to his blonde friend. As much as he was a hot-tempered person, he was thoroughly stubborn and that includes a trait of hating to admit when being wrong.

Dearka understood the ambiguity of the statement for he had been with the silver-haired for as long as he could remember. It was a sorry excuse of an apology but an apology nonetheless, especially since it was coming from the silver-had. It was an unspoken compromise that the silver-head was willing to make. A cheekily grin grew on Dearka's lips. "Will do, buddy. Oh, and Yzak?"

"Hn," the silver-head deadpanned.

"You punch like a girl."

Within a blink of an eye, the blonde was pugnaciously pummeled down on his back. The blonde quickly nursed his injured jaw after yelping out loud as he was caught off guard.

Yzak smirked in satisfaction. "Not much of a girlish punch was that now, huh?"

.

"Thank goodness they understood," Kira sighed in relief. "I thought that they were going to retaliate thinking that ZAFT had attack them."

Lowe nodded in agreement. "It's a good thing that majority of the Martians are Coordinators. They wanted to know why a ZAFT ship would enter their premises without any authorization. Unfortunately for you, they've contacted and informed ZAFT Military Headquarters about this."

Kira winced at the reminder. "Yes, I'm well aware. I just hope that the Martian Council rectify their claims and inform the Headquarters that they shouldn't be alarmed."

"I'm sure they did. After all, you did explained to them that this was not a military activity," Athrun added in.

The three of them were heading back to Lowe's apartment after an hour of consulting with the Martian Council assuring them that it was neither a terrorist attack nor a ZAFT attack. It was quite a long justification of both Athrun, who was an Orb Admiral, and Kira, who was a ZAFT Commander, but nevertheless with Lowe Guele as their witness, they were able to leave without another fuss.

"What happened to the both of you?" Athrun asked, looking bewildered at the two friends who were sitting on the couches nursing from what it looks like bruises on their faces with ice packs. Dearka was aimlessly flipping through channels while Yzak was lounging the other couch preoccupying himself with a book.

"Nothing," they both simultaneously remarked, looking quite grim.

"It was all a misunderstanding," Dearka added, wincing in pain as he sit up from his slouching form.

"That led to us having black eyes," Yzak seethed in irritation, putting aside his book.

Athrun and Kira gave quizzical looks to one another. "How did this happened?" Kira asked.

"A mildly misunderstanding on my part which led to something physical," the blonde explained with an inwardly shrug. "So how did it go?"

"It went well. They grant us a temporary stay until we are able to get out soon. Which we are considering that my wedding is today," Kira flatly answered with a sigh.

"Well we'll make it," Yzak adamantly assured the soft brown-head. "Just let me nurse my bruised eye first then we can get the hell out of this unpleasant place."

The only Natural snickered. "Don't worry about your eye, besides, I'm sure people will be distracted by something else on your face."

"You're picking a fight, Natural?" Yzak darkly asked, glaring at the rusty-haired.

Immediately, Lowe quickly shook his head in disagreement. "No, no not at all! But you got to admit, that thing looks so cool," he said in awed, eyeing the meticulous work of art on the silver-haired Coordinator's face.

"If you're referring to these stupid piercings, then no. I find it not amusing, the only reason why I haven't taken them off is because they hurt like hell." Yzak deadpanned in irksome, irritated that the shiny things were freely dangling down his ear weighting it heavier than it's ever been.

"Not those, silly. I'm talking about the tattoo!"

Yzak froze. "What? What tattoo?" Icy blue eyes glared menacingly at the friendly Natural.

"You know, that tattoo there, it looks cool on you man! No one will even care if you have a black eye since that thing is on your face!" Lowe complimented, giving the silver-haired man a thumbs up oblivious that the man in question was unaware of the taboo ink that was plastered knowingly on his face.

The three other Coordinators froze in place. Oh, dear god, they forgot to mention to Lowe to not to point out the stupid tattoo to Yzak.

"Where exactly is this tattoo that you're referring to located?"

"Um, uh, you know, the one on your face?" Lowe replied unsurely. He failed to see the others behind Yzak frantically making hand gestures tell him to stop whatever he was saying.

Too late.

The Joule heir picked up the subtle hint and his mood quickly darkened. "Do you happen to have a mirror?" Yzak coolly asked.

Athrun, Dearka, and Kira wasn't so sure if they should be afraid about the silver-haired tone of voice. He was rather calm after being informed that there lied a tattoo on his face. It was…unsettling. Unbeknownst to them, it was a prelude of a storm, most notably from a certain silver-haired.

The rusty-haired Natural blinked. "Uh, yeah, over there." He pointed towards a long vertical mirror that was hang behind a door.

"Um, Yzak, I don't think it's wise…" Kira began.

"Yeah, buddy, there's no tattoo," Dearka forced a laugh.

"Right, Yzak don't bother," Athrun added.

The silver-haired paid no heed to his friends and quickly made his way towards the mirror to seek the truth.

"What…?" Yzak began, looking stunned at the reflection before him.

"I-I'm sure we could do something about it!"

"Y-Yeah! Once we go back, we can have it remove in no time!"

"Y-Yes! So please don't worry about it, Yzak!"

"Plus I got a tattoo myself on my back!" Athrun added in hopes to ease the silver-haired.

"…WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?!" He roared in disgust. All three Coordinators along with their Natural friend flinched by the loud voice.

"A TATTOO? A GODDAMN TATTOO? WHOSE BRIGHT IDEA WAS IT TO PUT A DRAGON TATTOO ON MY FACE?!" He fumed angrily.

"Is he always this loud?" Lowe whispered to Kira in awed. How one lone man could projected such loud booming voice would be a wonder to him.

"Well, only when provoked," he answered with a nervous smile.

"Easy now, buddy, we did say that we don't know what exactly happened," Dearka calmly reminded the boiling commander.

"I think he's going to burst," Athrun noted nervously.

"GRAH! DAMN YOU, YOU STUPID DEARKA ELSMAN! I WILL MAKE YOU PAY YOU BASTARD!"

And with that, the Joule heir blindly charged at the blonde in which the latter hid behind the Natural who was rendered in shock. Kira and Athrun once again grabbed hold of their angry friend as they tried to reason with him without inflicting any more damages.

.

"Are there any early available shuttles that deports to PLANTs?" Kira asked his Natural friend. The sooner they can get out of here, the better. It was enough that they had to hold back Yzak from killing the blonde. They need to return home. ASAP.

Lowe shook his head sympathetically. "Sorry, Kira. There's practically no shuttles available to go that far right now."

"How about any of the ZAFT bases back on Earth?" Yzak suggested, frowning.

"I'm pretty sure civilians here in Mars don't go visit the ZAFT bases for vacation," Dearka pointed out, rolling his eyes. His friend simply shot a glare at him.

"Well then how about Orb?" Athrun suggested, pondering on the possible thought as he idly rubbed his chin.

"Orb?" Both Kira and Lowe echoed simultaneously, looking at the blue-haired in astonishment.

"Yeah, Orb. Or any neutral countries like the Kingdom of Scandinavia or Equatorial Union? Better yet, the Oceania Union? Since both Naturals and Coordinators live in most of those areas together, I'm sure the Martians have diplomacy with them."

Lowe pondered at the information and nodded in agreement. "That's true."

"Why Orb?" Dearka queried.

"You're forgetting that I am an Admiral of the Orb Union. I'm sure they'll provide us with a shuttle to PLANTs."

The blonde nodded in agreement. "True."

"Well I'll see what I can do, trips are pretty pricey from here to Earth," Lowe said, scratching the back of his head in deep thought wondering how in the world he's going to manage this all.

"You can tab it under my name," Kira added, smiling reassuringly.

Lowe happily grinned. "I'll make arrangements immediately, but I won't guarantee you anything."

_._

* * *

**Quintilis Three, Quintilis City PLANTs**

Pleasure Island

_Yesterday, 1948 hours _

.

"Why in the world are we going into another bar?" Athrun groaned in chagrin.

Dearka laughed at the expense of Athrun's dismay. "Relax, Athrun. A colleague recommended this place to me."

"What's so special about this place?" Shinn asked, eyeballing the name of the bar with skepticism.

Dearka winked. "You'll find out once we're there."

.

"This is not a bar! This is practically a strip club!" Kira exclaimed in disbelief. He had to grab hold of the drunk silver-haired with his other arm since he'd almost dropped him from his momentarily awestruck moment.

The place was crawling with night owls as they danced heatedly on the dance floor. A tint of red shade made its way to Kira's face as he noticed many of the present females' state of dress.

"It's not a strip club, Kira," Dearka assured the brown-haired, folding his arms.

"Then pray tell me, what do you call a place where women who are practically half naked dancing around and serving drinks to men?" Athrun flatly asked, slightly blushing as a female boldly winked at him as she passed by.

"A club," Dearka empathetically answered, shrugging indifferently. "That just so happened to have half-naked girls serving drinks and dancing around."

"Dearka, maybe we should go someplace quieter. Yzak seems like he needs to cool off." Kira wisely suggested, giving his drunk friend a worried look.

"Uh, Commander, I believe Commander Joule is saying something," Shinn said, furrowing his worry brows together.

"Yzak, hey, are you okay?" Kira asked the half drunken man who was nodding his head.

"Let me go," the silver-haired mumbled grumpily whilst his eyes were still closed.

"Yzak," Kira called, looking at his friend with concern.

His friend grunted. "That damn Dearka, I wanna rematch!" Yzak shouted angrily.

"A what?!" Athrun, Kira, and Shinn yelled out simultaneously, eyes bulging out of their sockets.

"I challenged you, Dearka Elsman to a rematch!" The Joule heir slurred bitterly. "This time, I will prevail!"

The Elsman heir burst into a fit of laughter. "Haha! That's the spirit, Yzak!" Dearka cheerfully exclaimed, encouraging the rest with a hand gesture. "Now let's go! I'm surprised that Yzak out of all people would be excited about this than you guys."

"It's because you got him drunk," Athrun deadpanned, giving the blonde a glare, but nonetheless trailed behind the blonde as he led them to an unoccupied table.

.

"Well, I guess I win. Again," Dearka announced as he placed his last shot down.

"How the hell are you still sober?" Athrun asked, appalled as he looked at the blonde in wonder. He was well aware the blonde was a heavy drinker, hence his ability to tolerate alcohol so much, but even though he's a Coordinator, shouldn't he still have a limit?

The tanned blonde shrugged as he sly smirked. He propped his chin over his hand as he idly rest his arm against the table. He looked at the blue-head with half lidded eyes. "What can I say? I'm too amazing. Although I might be starting to feel tipsy."

"Well hello there, gorgeous," a sultry voice greeted.

Dearka turned to see a very pretty redhead standing before him. He slowly slouched back at his seat and flashed his trademark smirk at the lady. "And hello to you, too, beautiful."

"You alone?"

"Nope, got my boys with me tonight!" He pointed at his gawking companions—minus Yzak who ran to vomit the alcohol out of his system in the restroom—who were looking at the curvy pretty redhead lady in question with appreciation. "How about you, babe?"

"I'm alone." She knowingly winked. "But I guess not anymore. Considering that there's a gentlemen who should be escorting me to the dance floor."

Dearka raised a brow at her coyly and flirtatious pickup line. "Don't mind if I do." He got up and raised a hand for the redhead to grab hold of. The woman giggled. "I'm Sara."

"And I'm Mr. Wonderful. Later boys!" He bid he rest a goodbye with a wave as he made his way to the dance floor.

"How the hell did he managed to get a babe like her within a second?" Kira wondered out loud in appalled, still gawking at the retreated forms. Shinn didn't say anything for he too was bewitched by the redhead beauty.

Athrun inwardly shrugged as he grabbed an unfinished shot from Yzak's vacant place and chugged the cool liquor down his throat. "It's 'the Dearka Charm', or so I was told before."

.

"So, how about we get to know each other personally over at my place?" The redhead, Sara, boldly offered after about fifteen minutes into the dancing.

Dearka shook his head. "Sorry babe, no can do."

The redhead frowned. "Why not? Don't tell me you're already spoken for."

"As a matter of fact, I am. I'm in a happily monogamous relationship with my beautiful girl. Sorry, but if we were to meet in my younger days, I'd total go for you." He winked at the frowning redhead.

She pouted. "Bummer, all the good ones are taken."

Dearka laughed whole heartedly. "How about I make it up to you? You see, I have a few buddies back in my squad who's single and who would love to meet you."

Her eyes widen in surprise. "Oh really? So you're a soldier?"

"_Captain_, my dear, not just any regular soldier," he corrected her with a wink. "How about we take a picture together so I can send it to my boys back in at the base? I'm pretty sure that the single ones are willing to go for you." He offered, waggling his phone in front suggestively.

The woman inwardly shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

After a few suggestive shots, the blonde quickly sent the pictures to his latest contacts and mischievously smiled. "Awesome, in about a minute, your phone will be exploded with text messages."

"Aren't you a charmer? Well, thanks hotshot, and here's my number, be sure to give this to your boys." She sighed dreamingly.

The blonde cheekily grinned. "Will do, beautiful."

"You know, you're a pretty nice guy. Your girlfriend must be one lucky girl," she genuinely complimented.

"No, I'm the lucky man to have someone like her," he corrected, smiling. He waved a goodbye as he left her on the dance floor looking quite surprised.

.

"Uh, Kira?"

"Yes, Athrun?"

"You okay?"

"No, not, really. You?"

"No, not really, too. How about you, Shinn?"

"I am really not feeling comfortable right now."

The three boys were cornered in the middle of the semi-circle lounge table as they look nervously at women who were giving them predatorily gazes.

"Aw, look at them! They're so shy!" A purple haired woman cooed dreamingly.

"I want the cutie at the end!" The brunette boldly claimed, smiling at Athrun who visibly shuddered.

"Why are you guys so far away from us? Come here!" One of them, the short orange-haired, grabbed the nearest one in front of her who unfortunately had to be the greenhorn, Shinn. "There, isn't that better?" She asked, tugging the raven-haired closer to her.

"Uh…no?"

The green-haired woman let out a sultry laugh, swatting a hand at the boy's arm. "My, aren't you a funny one!"

"Um, I appreciate the offer," Kira began uncomfortably, looking warily at the purple-haired who just targeted him, "but I don't think—"

His protest was promptly cut off as the purple-haired woman pulled him off the seat and dragged him to the dance floor. The brown-haired Coordinator looked quite shock, too speechless to say anything. "H-Hey!"

"Loosen up! Let's dance!"

Athrun glanced at his best friend who was reluctantly dragged away in the inevitable impediment. "Kira—"

"Oh don't worry about him, he'll be fine with May!" the brunette lazily half-interested assured the blue-head Coordinator. "Come with me! Let's go dancing, too!"

"H-Hold on!" His protest was a deaf ear to the girl. As a Coordinator, he could easily shake her off but for sure he's not dealing with an ordinary woman but rather a woman who's a Coordinator just like him, which explains the strong grip she has on his arm as he winced in pain.

He stole a glance back at Shinn who was struggling to keep away from orange-head, who was forcibly trying to engulf him in a hug. The raven-haired gave Athrun a pleading look in which Athrun could only return the same expression back to him.

Athrun's guts tells him that this was not going to end well at all for any of them.

_._

* * *

**Australis Colony, Mars**

Lowe's Apartment

_Present Day, 0901 hours, (approx. 10 until the wedding)_

.

"_And now for the news from PLANTs…"_

"Turn that television up, would you?" Yzak requested as he took a bite off his toast.

The boys were currently eating their breakfast, courtesy of Kira's cooking abilities and Lowe's hospitality, as they were waiting for their Natural friend to comeback with news regarding their trip to Earth.

Dearka grabbed the nearby remote and raised the volume, also curious about what was going on in PLANTs besides the biggest event of the year, Kira's wedding.

"…_Last night in Maius City, five unidentified men caused a rather havoc scene at the Shuttle Terminal…"_

"Holy shit," Dearka muttered in awed.

Athrun gaped wide open. "They actually displayed pictures?"

Kira look stunned as his eyes were zeroed in at the pictures displayed on the screen. "Was that really me?"

"…_These men were later identified as high ranking officials of the ZAFT Forces and the Orb Military. We believe they were identified as followed; Commander Yzak Joule of ZAFT, Captain Dearka Elsman of ZAFT, Commander Kira Yamato of ZAFT, Lieutenant Shinn Asuka of ZAFT, and finally Admiral Athrun Zala of Orb…"_

The screen then switched to displaying five pictures of the identified men. The soldiers stared at the television screen in disbelief.

"Are those…" The blue-haired began.

"Freaking mugshots of us?!" Yzak incredulously screeched, starling everyone as he jumped out of his seat.

"_We interviewed an eyewitness that was present at the scene, here is what he had to say."_

"_I cannot believe what I was seeing! They were clearly drunk! Some of us were really quite shocked. They came barging in the terminal claiming to want to go to Earth…"_

"Turn to another goddamn channel, Dearka!"

"What? Why? In case you've forgotten, none of us really recalled what happened last night," Dearka pointed out. "I want to know what happened."

"—_my friends saw them outside a bar in Quintilis City! Honestly, I was surprised when hearing that they were kicked out—"_

"_Currently, these high ranking officials have not been seen after they stole two space shuttles from Maius City last night. Authorities are still figuring out where the two stolen shuttles have launched off to…"_

"_Breaking News, Miss Lacus Clyne is about to make a press conference regarding the incident…"_

"_Miss Clyne! What do you think about this—"_

"_Today is your wedding day—"_

"_Did Commander Kira Yamato ran off to escape the wedding—"_

"_Miss Clyne, what do you think about these brawls—"_

"_Is the wedding still on—"_

"_Everyone, I apologize for the confusion. But I assure you, the wedding will go on today. I believe our high ranking officials were having a bit too much fun last night. My fiancé, Commander Kira Yamato, had his stag party last night with his comrades. I will take full responsibilities of the damages that were caused from their escapades. I sincerely apologize if they actions had alarmed many of you. I assure you that they were not in the right state of mind…"_

"Oh, shoot me now," Kira muttered in humiliation as he covered his face in shame.

"I guess we really need to go back as soon as we can," Dearka mumbled to himself.

"Hey everyone!" A familiar voice boomed followed by the sound of a shutting door behind.

"In the living room!" Athrun called out.

Lowe entered the room with gleam in his eyes as if he'd hit the jackpot. "You guys are in luck."

Kira furrowed his brows together in wonder. "Why is that?"

"Boom!" The rusty-haired Natural presented four papers in front of them. "Your tickets home."

Dearka was the first one to get over his initial shock. His eyes widen in disbelief and relief. "Are you serious?"

The friendly Natural nodded and grinned. "Yup, four tickets to go to Orb. Last ones, too."

Kira went over to embrace the Natural in a brotherly hug. "Gosh Lowe, I really don't know how to repay you."

The friendly Natural waved a dismissive hand and he softly pushed aside the Ultimate Coordinator. "Nah, don't worry about it. I'm just glad to help."

"Why don't you come to the wedding?" Kira suggested. It was the least he could offer the good man after having to help them the whole time they're in this unfamiliar place anyways.

Lowe blinked owlishly in shock. "Are you serious?"

Dearka slung a friendly arm around the Natural. "Yeah! Come with us! You've done so much for us anyways."

"Plus, you've helped sort out the problem with the Martian Armed Forces and the Council, we can't thank you enough," Athrun added with a grateful smile.

"Well I'll be honored to go once I'm done with my work over here," the rusty-haired Natural amiably grinned at his new and old friends. "Your flight leaves in about forty minutes so you guys should prepare."

.

* * *

**Australis Colony, Mars**

Shuttle Terminal

_Present Day, 0943 hours, (approx. less than 10 until the wedding)_

.

"Well, at least something went right." Athrun brightly pointed out. He and the rest were boarding the shuttle that will soon take them to their destination. They were making their ways to their designated seats in the back.

"The sooner we get to Orb, the sooner we can get a search team to look for Shinn." Kira said. He was rather feeling quite guilty about abandoning his subordinate. He was the one who invited him so he believed it was his responsibility to look after the red-eyed soldier. "I really feel bad about leaving him alone somewhere."

"Relax, you're forgetting that the kid is a Red Coat Elite. We soldiers are trained to survive in any type of situations." Dearka reminded the worry commander from behind.

Kira solemnly nodded, but still couldn't lift the unease feeling he has lingering inside. "You're right. I sometimes forget that we're soldiers when we're not wearing our uniforms."

The Coordinators located their seats and quickly settled down, Kira sitting next to Athrun while Dearka and Yzak sat behind the two.

"The gravity in this planet is so unpleasant," Yzak dryly commented as he settled himself in his seat.

"Well it's a good thing that we're heading to Earth. At least their gravity is better," his blonde seatmate remarked.

The buzzing sound of the announcer went off_. "Good morning, ladies and gentlemen this is your captain, Rey Colt, speaking. We would like to welcome you on board this Air Shuttle Flight GH240 to Buenos Aires, United States of South America—"_

Four Coordinators looked stunned as they look at one another.

"…Did he just said what I think he just said?"

"…Buenos Aires…?"

"No, that can't be right. This shuttle is heading to Orb…right?"

"—_Flight duration is around two and a half hours to Buenos Aires, United States of South America and we are expecting a fairly smooth flight today.—"_

"O-kay, maybe he did say Buenos Aires."

"Goddamn it! There it is again! He said _Buenos Aires_ as in the damn capital of the _USSA_! Why are we not going to Orb?! What kind of rip off is this?!"

"Didn't that Junk Guild dude said that this shuttle was heading to Orb?"

"He did, but maybe we accidently entered the wrong shuttle."

"—_Once again we thank you for choosing to fly with us today and we hope you enjoy your flight."_

"Excuse me, miss!" Kira called out. Perhaps they must've entered the wrong shuttle. It's best to tell someone before they take off. A red-haired stewardess caught his attention and immediately made her way towards the group.

"How can I help you gentlemen today?" She kindly offered with a smile, hovering over the seat.

"Did that senseless captain say that this stupid shuttle was heading to the goddamn USSA?!" The silver-haired barked in anger before Kira could answer.

The stewardess visibly flinched at the tone of voice. Clearly she was not anticipating to be yelled at by one of the gentlemen. Kira lightly glared at Yzak for the outburst.

"Ah, ignore him, miss. He tends to get really aggravated especially when we're about to take off." Athrun explained with a dismissive hand gesture.

"I am not—"A hand promptly stopped any more verbal harassment from the Joule heir.

"Yeah, you see our friend here gets very bad motion sickness so do excuse his rudeness." The blonde awkwardly laughed, tightening his hold on his silver-haired friend.

"Ump!" The silver-haired muffled, struggling to get loose from the tight grip. He dangerously glared at the blonde who was holding him down.

"Oh, o-kay then, would he like an airsickness bag?" the stewardess hesitantly offered, glancing questionably at the red face silver-haired in question.

"Ah, thanks alright. He'll be fine soon. But getting back on topic, I believe my friends and I are in the wrong shuttle, miss." The brown-haired Coordinator explained furrowing his brows anxiously.

"Hmm, that's unusual. We don't normally allow passengers without a boarding ticket to the shuttles. It's highly irregular for some occurrences like this to happen. May I see your ticket, sir?"

Kira reached for his ticket inside his pocket and handed to the woman. The woman graciously accepted the ticket and examined the piece of paper.

"Well according to the ticket here, you are in the correct shuttle, sir." The stewardess calmly retorted.

"What? That can't be possible! We purchased the tickets going to Orb, not the USSA!" Dearka protested in frustration. Clearly nothing was going as planned and everything was taking the wrong turn by the minute.

"This is what the ticket says, sir." The stewardess showed Kira his ticket and pointed at the reference. In fine bolded words, the statement was loud and clear;

_**Flight from Australis Colony, Mars to Buenos Aires, United States of South America**_

Kira blinked owlishly, staring at the piece of paper before him. Athrun looked beside Kira's shoulder while Yzak and Dearka hovered behind his seat to see with the latter releasing the silver-haired from his hold. "You've got to be kidding me," Dearka mumbled under his breath.

The Joule heir gritted his teeth in anger, attempting to keep his anger at bay but with no vail.

"We need to get out of here," Athrun muttered, annoyed by their futile attempt in getting out of the red planet.

"I'm afraid you cannot do that, sirs," the stewardess said, sympathetically. "The hatch is already closed and this shuttle is about to take off in less than two minutes so I suggest you gentlemen buckle in your seatbelts."

Yzak took deep breathes before glaring ahead, in which the poor stewardess just so happened to be in his line of vision and went pale. "Oh, that Natural is _so_ dead."

.

"_Achoo_!" Lowe loudly sneezed, rubbing his nose with a finger.

"You okay there buddy? You're not getting sick aren't you?" His friend asked, worried. The Natural and the rest of the Junk Guild in Mars were salvaging some parts from the ZAFT shuttle that Kira and his friends were in.

"Nah, maybe someone was talking about me," Lowe jokingly remarked, chuckling. As a Natural, he prided himself for almost never getting sick. It's too troublesome to deal with recovering if you're on your own anyways.

His comrade laughed wholeheartedly. "Sure, who would talk about you anyways?"

"Hey, by the way Lowe did you managed to get the tickets for us?" Another junk guild member asked.

"Tickets? Tickets for what?" Lowe wondered as he placed a totalled object inside a bag.

"You know, to go to USSA? Unlike you, we don't pilot any Gundams. We needed those tickets to meet up with some Junk Guild members over there," his comrade reminded him, half smiling.

"Oh! Right here they are." The rusty-haired dug inside his back pocket to grab the purchased tickets.

"Thanks!" He graciously took the tickets. After examining the tickets for a minute, the man frowned. "Um, Lowe?"

"What's up?"

"How come these tickets said 'United Emirates of Orb'?"

"What?"

"Yeah, here, have a look." The man gave the tickets back to Lowe in which the latter looked at the perplexing tickets with a confused look.

His eyes quickly scanned the paper and frowned. "Aw, crap." Now he realized why he had sneezed earlier. He mentally kicked himself.

"What's wrong, Lowe?"

"I think…I just gave them the wrong tickets."

"Give who what wrong tickets?" The man echoed with a quizzical look.

The Natural groaned in dismay, feeling the chills going down his spine and shivered involuntarily. "That silver-haired Coordinator is going to _kill_ me."

.

.

.

* * *

**A/N:** Wow, I can't believe I wrote a chapter this long. Again, I wasn't so sure about this chapter. My eyes and fingers were hurting by the time I started on this author's note. I like barely edit this so again, please excuse my crap-ola grammar for I shall edit them when I have the time. I hoped you guys like this chapter! Hehe, yeah I shipped them off to South America, sue me. I wanted them to experience more adventures on Earth, considering that they've done the wackiest things back in PLANTs. Next chapter I'll write how Yzak and Athrun got their tattoos and of course how our favorite commander got his shiny piercings! And, of course, how they managed to steal two shuttles from Maius City, how they got painted on, and how Shinn got separated from the rest :D Oh! And the scene where they're in the club, I'll expand it more in the next chapter, too!

Just to make it clear, I have no idea if the places I mentioned actually existed in the PLANTs colonies, they're purely from my imagination. Especially with the Mars Colony. I have no idea if they have a military force let alone a Council.

I wanted the boys to go to an underrated territory like the USSA, since from what I've read, they are a nation without any armed forces and were quite bullied by the Atlantic Federation for sometimes.

And about Yzak and Dearka fighting. I've always seen how Yzak would insult Dearka on numerous occasions and Dearka would be the friend who would tease and try to calm him down. But I believe everyone has their breaking point when they're accused of something they didn't commit. Although Dearka has quite the patience when dealing with Yzak, he's still human so he's bound to be fed up once in a while.

In addition, this story isn't going to have many chapters. Hence, the length of every chapter I've written so far. This story is supposedly like a one-shot series. So I believe this story is going to be finish in let's say, three more chapters? Maybe four or five I don't know but what I know is that this story is not going to be more than ten chapters.

Ah, I'm rambling again! Sorry! But anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please let me know what you think by reviewing! Until next time!

.

**Blackberrymint**\- Haha aww, I'm glad you liked it! I might _possibly_ write a one-shot about their adventure. I honestly have no idea what the girls could have done in one night! Thanks for the suggestions! I really like the second idea you've suggested! Be on the lookout of it next chapter! And I used part of your idea from your first suggestion! Wait till you see how they react!

**Lenora Jime-** LOL! Honestly, I made it up within a minute! I'd figure although the boys were attending a Military Academy, they must've done something fun and wild since after all they do have Dearka in their group ;D I'm glad you like Yzak's side story! I had so much fun writing it! I've been thinking about writing a short story about those two as soon as soon as I'm done with this story!

**Fhkes**\- Haha! Don't worry about Shinn! I can assure you even though that boy tends to do rash things, he's incapable of killing himself in the wilderness (Did I spoil it?).

**Maria-Reynne**\- Aw! Thank you! Haha we'll see :D Knowing Kira, he'll put aside his priority (wedding) and place finding Shinn as his main one instead. Their biggest mission right now is to find a way to go home (after finding Shinn) and make it in time for the wedding. Who knows, maybe or maybe not they'll make it or even show up? ;D I haven't really think about making any chapters regarding the girls' party. I might possibly write one later in the future.

**GreenFire-** Aw thank you so much! Haha I'm planning on writing a short story about those two soon :D I'm glad you like the story so far!

**Tinylittlerobots-** Haha yes! Yzak's a demon! I'd figure Shinn would respect Kira a lot since Kira was the one who encouraged Shinn to join him at the end of GSD. :D Dearka is by far my favorite character to write! Yes, I agree with you, Sai and Kuzzey are underrated. At first, I was about to add them to the story but then I realized that I don't really know how they would react to situations like these T.T So I'd figure since they're probably busy with their careers back on Earth, they would most likely turn down the invite. But not to worry! They'll be at the wedding (if there's still a wedding ;P) I'm teasing you aren't I?

**Guest-** Thanks for reviewing! I will try my best in finishing this soon! :D


	4. Chapter 4

**A Series of Unfortunate Events**

Chapter 4

foureyesfreak27

**Summary:** Post-GSD. In which a bachelor's party was destined to go downhill from the start…

**Disclaimer:** I do not own GS/GSD.

**Character(s):** Kira Yamato, Athrun Zala, Dearka Elsman, Yzak Joule, and Shinn Asuka.

**A/N:** Hi! Sorry for the delay everyone! Thank you all for your wonderful support! Happy Chinese New Year!

**Warning**: This chapter has not been fully edited yet. Please excuse any grammatical errors.

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Shinn Asuka never did like to drink.

Beside the horrible aftertaste of the liquid, the consequence of excessive drinking, after all, was inevitable; hangovers. Goodness, how he absolutely _loathed_ them. This was the sole particular reason why he was hesitant on coming along with. Captain Dearka Elsman was notorious for his exuberant escapades and it was no wonder that the raven-haired subordinate was miraculously coaxed by his superior officer into drinking last night.

The aftermath of binge drinking was what the Red Coat dreaded. Hence, he is now stuck with an unwilling-to-compromised body that's stagnated to move even a millimeter from where he was. His heavy eyes refused to face the daylight after having the forbearing glimpse of the day and the feeling as if he'd been run over by a group of EA mobile suits. These were the particular reasons why he was so adamant on being the designated sober companion of the group. Too bad the devilish captain ignored his inclination and forcibly made him drink with the rest.

Stupid hangovers. Subconsciously, he made a mental checklist of just how bad his hangover was.

Excessive pounds of headaches as if a sledgehammer consecutively clobbered itself onto your head?

_Check._

Droopy eyes that makes you want to shed away from the sunlight?

Can't tell but can feel it so that's a _check_.

A throat that feels so dry and dehydrated that he's unable to make any sound save a simple croak?

_Check._

Heartbeat racing like a maniac and could allowed him to practically hear the beating with his own sensitive ears?

_Check._

Sluggish body that makes you feel like crap?

_Check._

Bad breath that still have the lingering sensation of alcohol?

He breathed into his dominate hand and quickly sniffed a smell. His nose wrinkled in distaste. Ugh, _check_ to the _maximum._

Ironically, that's the beauty of drinking. Having a blast for only that one night but consequentially you'll feel like you regret being alive the next day. The greatest paradox of hangovers was having no recollection of prior events which can either be seen as a blessing or a curse. He ran a hand down the length of his face, frustrated by his current state.

With zero recollection of his night, he could not tell if last night could be the worst possible night of his life. On the other hand, it could be that he had spent a fortune having tons of fun with the rest of his companions. And the worst part about it, he'll never know which possibility was right.

But somehow, a nagging feeling in the back of his head tells him that it was the former. A groggily groan escaped his lips as he tried to get up from his laying position. His shirr will to get up overcame his protesting body as he tried to regain his equilibrium. He closed his eyes, savoring a minute of tranquility before allowing his eyes to face the glaring rays of spectrum.

He frowned after noticing a few things.

One, he was _not_ in a familiar place. All he was greeted were trees around him which conclude that he was somewhere in the wilderness. The sound of the morning birds chirping around him was giving him an excruciating headache.

Two, there laid a shuttle—a wrecked one—laying just a few meters away from him. He allocated that he was in that specific shuttle that transported him to this unfamiliar place. How he got out of that wrecked thing was a wonder to him but he wisely dismissed the irrelevant notion for he had better things to worry about.

Three, it was blazing _hot_. Where ever he was right now, he came to a realization that this was _not_ PLANTs. The space colonies have some warm temperature but never would it suppressed a certain degree to the point that people were sweating profusely in which he was doing so right this minute. It does no good knowing that he could smell the mixture of sweat beads that were forming from his sweat glands and the strong smell of his body odor and paint—the latter on the list perplexed him but he then looked down to notice that he was covered in paint—around his body.

And finally four, he was _alone_. The superior officers who were with him last night were not present. He saw no sign of any of the four elite pilots around him which made him slightly fidget about this whole scenario. There was no way that they were still inside the shuttle since the inside of the spacecraft was exposed to the open and there was no one there.

What has he done that made him deserve this severe treatment? But more importantly:

"Where in the world am I?"

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**Quintilis Three, Quintilis City PLANTs**

Pleasure Island

_Yesterday, 2058 hours _

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After god knows how long he was in the restroom throwing out the content that was inside stomach into the toilet until his gut was cleared, Yzak staggered his way out of the restroom and leaned against the wall near him. He closed his hazy eyes and groaned in pain. Considering the amount of alcohol his body had intake, he's beginning to regret what he had done because he was starting to feel the side effects of excessive drinking. Damn Elsman.

"Yo, Yzak!"

Yzak involuntarily let out a snarl as the voice came closer to him. Speak of the damn devil.

"Buddy, you've finally come to your senses?" Dearka shouted out gleefully as he slapped a casual hand behind the silver-haired. The Joule heir glared in annoyance at the culprit who had made him in this state.

"Shut _up_, Dearka," the sluggish silver-haired hissed. He was _not _in the mood of the blond's buffoonery.

The said blond quirked a brow in amusement. "Well, glad to see that you're fine now. I guess it's 'cause you are, after all, a Coordinator." The silver-head simply shot him a warning glare.

"What the hell just happened?" Yzak managed to croak out hoarsely. His flushed face was a telltale of his tipsy state but went redder in irritation after seeing the blond in front of him.

The dynamitic barely drunken—how he was still cheery at this time was a wonder to Yzak—blond cheekily grinned, something that Yzak wanted to rip out of his face happily. "You've consumed quite the amount of drinks there, Yzak. I'm surprised that you're still standing before me."

"No kidding," the silver-haired muttered sarcastically. As much as he wanted to pummel the blond in front of him, his weak body protested against his wish. So instead he opt for a reason to distract his pugnacious desire. "Where's Zala and the rest?"

Dearka shrugged indifferently, as if he had honestly forgotten about the rest of his companions since he was preoccupied until now. "I left them in the lounge, but then I saw them on the dance floor earlier. But that was almost an hour ago so they're probably somewhere else."

Suddenly a loud commotion was made behind them. The two Coordinators quickly turned their gaze to the direction of the noise which was zeroed in the dance floor. From the looks of it, everyone stopped their movement to gather around a group of people in the center. From where they were standing, they couldn't quite make of the situation that everyone was hovering around in even with their enhanced abilities as Coordinators.

"Is there a fight over there?" Dearka wondered out loud, furrowing his brows together. From what it looks like, it involved a bunch of bulky guys and a few others. He couldn't quite see their faces though.

Yzak had a sinking feeling in his gut that somehow the quarrel revolves around their other three companions. He refused to believe it but as a soldier, he was trained to listen to his instincts. "I don't know, but somehow I have a bad feeling about who's involved. Whatever it is, we need to find out."

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Athrun Zala was raised as a gentleman. He was taught to hold his tongue whenever he had something negative to say and wisely keep his comment to himself. He was taught that he needed to be gentle and chivalrous when there's a woman—regardless of whether they're tediously annoying or lady-like polite—present and to treat her with the upmost respect. But a man could hold so much patience.

He sometimes cursed himself for being one, and right now is a time where he hates possessing that gentleman-like character of his. The woman before him must have been the most upfront, stubborn, bold, and loud woman he had the misfortune of encountering. Heck, Cagalli isn't even this aggressive. Sure she's stubborn and likes to speak her mind out but being the Chief Representative of a powerful nation, she had to have those traits in order to be a strong leader. Unlike the brunette before him, his girlfriend knows her boundaries and limitations. But this girl was too contentious, something he found very irritating.

"Look, I think I should head back now," Athrun wisely suggested, clearly feeling uncomfortable by the close proximity of the brunette, Janice if he's not mistaken, who was standing before him.

"Aw, don't be like that," she coyly replied, dismissing his suggestion as if it was an absurd notion to begin with. She snaked her arms around the blue-haired, in which the latter was quite perplexed by, and pulled him towards her even closer.

He sighed in irritation, clearly not liking where things had escalated one bit. He pushed her away with a force that was slightly harder than necessary—since knowing this kind of girl, he had to use some kind of force to get her away from him—which startled the brunette.

He looked straight in the eyes of the brunette as he held her by the shoulder. "Look," he began, sounding sterner than he had anticipated but quite frankly he could care less right now as long as he gets away from the girl. "I have a girlfriend. I am tired. I want to sit down. So if you please, kindly let me go so I can leave."

The girl who was startled by the force that was used against her could only mutely nod slowly, by the looks of it she was slightly mesmerized by how good looking the man before her was.

Athrun sighed in relief. "Thank you." Before he could retreat from the girl, a strong hand came out of nowhere and grabbed hold of his arm, tightly gripping on it like hat was no tomorrow.

"Who the hell are you holding onto my girl like this?" A deep baritone voice darkly demanded.

The blue-haired Coordinator looked to his left to find a rather ticked off beefy looking man glaring menacingly at him. Athrun inwardly sighed out loud. Of course, she just had to have a pissed off boyfriend who misunderstood the situation. Jeez, all he had been doing for the past hour was trying to free himself of the brunette's hold. And now her boyfriend just had to come and witness him holding on to his girl. Could anything get worst?

The last thing he wanted was to start a fight in a public place.

Athrun closed his eyes as he slowly let go of his hold on the girl's shoulder but the arm that was held against his will was still being gripped by the beefy looking man. Honestly, by the looks of it, the ticked off boyfriend was not letting him go without a fight. Although the man was twice his size, the blue-haired was certain that he could go against him if a fight were to break. His military background had trained him to fight off against any size of soldiers, be it a small or a hulk-like man like the one before him.

"Look," the bluenet cautiously started, looking warily at the man. "I was only trying to get her off of me. I meant no harm."

The bulky man showed no sign of acceptance, instead he scoffed in disbelief. "That's bullshit. Your hands were all over my girl."

Of course, it's fruitless trying to reason with a hot-tempered man like this one. Somehow, the man reminded him of a teenager Yzak who would constantly let his emotions get the better of him.

"I'm not lying," Athrun calmly protested, staring blankly at him. Although he knew too well that his protest was a deaf-ear to the beefy man.

The forgotten brunette decided to interfere with the current silent battle that the men were having. "Babe, we were just dancing!"

"You stay out of this!" The boyfriend roared angrily to his girl. The brunette flinched at the harsh tone and cowardly took steps back away from the scene. Athrun grimaced. Of course, she'd be too afraid to face the angry wrath of her boyfriend so she decided to leave the victim in the hands of the pissed off man.

The blue-haired noticed how their commotion had caught a handful of people's attention and they had stopped whatever they were doing to witness the unfold scene before them. Great, now there's a crowd, eager to witness a fight. Athrun discreetly glanced to his left and was surprised to find Kira who was in a similar position as he was. The brown-haired commander looked petrified to come in between a couple's relationship and was looking at the man with a buzz cut hair style with wide eyes. Somehow, after realizing something, he shouldn't be all that surprised. After all, the girls who had forcibly took him, Kira, and Shinn to the dance floor were all friends.

In addition, it was no surprised that since they were friends, their boyfriends—in which he assumed that the rest of the girls have—would also be in some sort of clique and gang up on his friends. He assumed that Shinn was somewhere around close by and was also in a similar situation that he and Kira were currently in. He glanced behind his shoulder to his right and by the looks of it, it confirmed his suspicion. The red-eyed Coordinator was currently glaring at a man with a scar on his face before him with clenched fists ready to defend himself when the time comes.

By now, all activities on the dance floor was halted and a crowd was formed around three small group of people. He anxiously glanced over at Kira once again behind his shoulder to find him giving him a pleading look. The bluenet could only offered him a small smile of reluctant.

"Hey, looks like your other buddies were messing around with my buddies' girls, too," the beefy man snickered darkly, breaking Athrun's eye contact with Kira.

"It's not my fault that you can't keep your girl to yourself," Athrun flatly retorted, fully aware that it will riled up beefy man. Honestly, the only way to escape this situation was, ironically, to fight him. The blue-haired Admiral decidedly taunt beefy man into making the first move, knowing that if he did Athrun could attack him in self-defense, hence, justifying his action. A visible vein popped out on beefy man's temple after hearing the insult.

"What did you say, punk?!" Beefy man roared angrily, letting go of Athrun's arm. The hand that was gripping onto the latter sudden clenched into a fist that's ready itself to be thrown at the blue-head.

Before Athrun could retort and dodge the attack, a flash of blond hair interfered and stood before the bluenet. The familiar man grabbed hold of the flying fist before it attempt to make contact with the bluenet. "Whoa, buddy! Easy with that hand of yours. Your girl was right, there's no harm in dancing."

Beefy man zeroed his eyes at the unwanted blond intruder and growled. "Who the hell are you?!"

Dearka, unfazed by the hostility that was given to him, could only chuckled in delight, much to his other companion's horror. "Who? Me? I'm with these guys here." He pointed at Athrun and nodded towards Kira and Shinn, confirming that he was on their side in this mess. Yzak trailed behind the blond, a frown graced on his face as he looked at the troublesome scene before him.

"Dearka, stop taunting the fool," the now slightly sobered Yzak added nonchalantly from behind. "He's not worth our time."

"Bastards! Artie, Guy get these fools away from me! I have a score to settle with this one here!" Beefy man called out, glaring daggers at Athrun who was calmly quiet as he watched the whole ordeal. Behind him, two other hulky forms who they assumed were his other pals stepped out stretching and cracking their knuckles in intimidation. One with an unattractive mustache and the other with an ugly sideburn. Both the Joule and the Elsman heirs weren't faze by their attempts for they know that as elite soldiers that they can handle men like the ones who were ready to attack them.

Dearka inwardly sighed out loud, scratching his nape. "I guess it looks like we have to fight now."

The silver-haired snorted in disbelief. "You don't sound too apologetic about it."

"Nah, my adrenaline is pumped with excitement." The blond lazily grinned at the hulk who had the repugnant moustache, the one that was called Guy, as he cracked his knuckles with eagerness. "So, you're going against me? You don't look too tough in my opinion."

The now pissed off hulk lunged a fist towards the blond in which the latter easily dodged without a sweat. Dearka whistled lowly, shaking his head in bemusement. "Is that all you've got? Man, I was right." With that said, the hulk roared an impatient growl at the blond before attacking once again. The latter averted the attack and tactically retaliated a punch to his opponent's gut with ease, throwing him off balance and onto the floor.

"Now, can't we just talk like civil people to clear up the misunderstanding?" Dearka wisely suggested. But knowing how aggressive his opponent was, it was a fruitless attempt to console the man.

With his enhanced ability, Hulk sprang up from the ground at shouted strings of curses. "You bastard!"

The blond clicked his tongue and lazily smirked. "You know, insulting me does not make you a better fighter."

In a split second, Hulk had pulled back his arm, fist clenched, and threw it forward with a force aiming for the head. It took a second for the blond to realize the attack's target and quickly stepped aside. Unfortunately, the fist had instead lightly grazed Dearka's shoulder, causing him to move a millimeter backwards when it connected. The blond Coordinator slightly winced from the dull aching thud on his shoulder. He quickly recovered to only find Hulk swinging an aimless punch at him with a harder force. Dearka quickly retaliated, faster than his opponent could comprehend, with a merciless fist to the face that sent his foe flying KO backwards to the anxious crowd behind.

"Phew," the blond winner sighed gratefully as he wiped his temple with the back of his hand. He noted in satisfaction that Hulk had gone unconscious from his one fist KO and grinned cheekily. "Glad that that's over." He turned to the rowdy crowd who was giving him quite the acclamation for his victory.

Athrun was too enticed by the fight before him, he had _almost_ forgotten about ticked off beefy man who had readily himself to attack the blue-haired Coordinator. From his peripheral vision, a fist came flying from beefy man's direction towards him, in which the bluenet evaded handily by ducking down. The blue-head took advantage of his current position and swiftly swung his dominate leg across the floor, tripping the beefy man onto the cold hard ground as he let out an unmanly yelp.

Honestly, all the blue-haired wanted to do was to sit down. Was that too much to ask?

Beefy Man quickly got back on his feet and if death glare could kill, Athrun would've been six feet under by now. Beefy Man launched himself off of his stance and swung a fruitless fist across the blue-haired. Instead of dodging it like before, Athrun caught it with his left hand and gripped the fist with an unnerving strength. The foe tried to pull back his arm but did not prevail and decidedly throw a punch with his free hand. The Orb Admiral quickly ducked, still gripping onto the first hand, as he throttle the man up in the air, flipping him seamlessly onto his back. Beefy Man's eyes went wide in shock as he was pugnaciously throttled down to the ground with an unnatural thud.

Yzak looked undaunted by the apparent man who had the ugly sideburn, Artie, which he was supposedly facing against and snorted. "This is preposterous."

As one of ZAFT most youngest soldiers who hold the senior title as Commander, Yzak pride himself of having the skills and abilities to resolve any situation—be it stress or calm—with ease. Handling a large pugnacious PLANTs civilian was a no brainer to him, considering that he has the upper hand of having a trained militarily background. Quite frankly, he was in no mood to be throwing punches around, seeing how he was still recovering from the pounds of headache he possessed because of alcohol. But knowing the situation, he wasn't going to be let off without a fight, much to his dismay.

The Ugly Sideburn let out an ungodly roar before assailing a punch to the said silver-haired male. Yzak easily shuffled to the side, faltering the hulky from his strong fighting stance as he almost tripped on himself behind the Joule heir. The silver-haired looked behind his shoulder and icy blue eyes glared at their target in annoyed. He scoffed. "You really are a fool if you think that you'd win against me with that atrocious fist of yours."

Ugly Sideburn got up and glowered ferociously. "What did you say, bastard?!" He cried out with an animalistic screech. He swung another fist, but like the last time, the silver-haired dodged it with ease, merely moving a few centimeters from where he was.

The fair-head clicked his tongue at his foe's futile attempt. "Are you really a Coordinator? I know a Natural that can emit a stronger and faster punch than this," he provoked tauntingly. The insult had gotten the man in question the anticipated reaction that Yzak had wanted. The former blindly stampeded towards the latter with a beastly growl, carelessly throwing punches in the air aiming towards the fair-head.

"You coward! Stop dodging and fight me!"

An angry vein popped out in the side of his temple. Clearly, the fool had made the mistake of calling Yzak a coward for he was the exact opposite of it. Decidedly, Yzak determined it was time for him to reciprocate.

Instinctively, he single-handily blocked the punch that was aiming towards his face with one hand and countered with an upward punch from below to the foe's gut with the other. His fist forcibly made contact with the targeted area and Yzak watched his opponent backwardly staggered himself while violently coughing. In a flash, he was in front of him began to rhythmically throw punches all over the poor maniac.

"_Don't_." Punch. "You." Punch. "_Ever_." Punch. "Call." Punch. "Me." Punch. "That." Punch. "_BASTARD_!"

With the final attack, Yzak jerked his long leg back and strike it to Ugly Sideburn's face, making an unnatural sound of bone crack. The final attack sent the man crashing down to the ground with a loud thud and it was no surprised that the fool was knocked out of conscious. "Pathetic," Yzak sneered with a hint of remorse before turning away.

"You've got some nerves messing with my girl, punk," Scar Face hissed at Shinn. Shinn simply glared at the bigger male. As a trained soldier, Shinn had the confidence to single-handily take down the cocky bastard in front of him. Perhaps provoking him just a tad bit won't hurt. Just because he was physically smaller than the jerk in front of him, doesn't mean that this opponent had a military background like Shinn does. And one thing that Shinn couldn't stand is when people underestimated him because of his size.

"She came to me willingly, _pal_. Too bad she finds me more attractive than _you_," the raven-haired jeered as he smirked smugly at Scar Face.

Shinn could hear a faint sound of a jaw cracking from the now furious Scar Face.

"You… little…" The shaking Scar Face took a lurching step towards his smaller foe with each word he said. On his third step, he jerked an arm backwards before blindly launching it towards Shinn and yelled: "Fuckface!"

Shinn smoothly stepped to his right, evading the punch targeting him. Before Scar Face could even register the evasion, Shinn ducked himself leveling his eyes to the said man's torso and quickly threw a hard punch that sent ripples of pain through his abdomen. The bulky scar face violently coughed and staggered his balance—although the younger man knew that he tried his hardest to prevent it—allowing the raven-haired Coordinator to go in for another shot, this time on his face. The shot was too fast for Scar Face to comprehend for the moment it made in contact with his jaw, the wave rippling force sent him flying a few meters back.

"Who's the fuckface _now_?" The Red Coat snickered victoriously, pitying the poor fool on the ground who was groaning in pain.

"Um, we really don't have to resort to violence," Kira said, anxiously. He made a hand gesture that attempted to calm the man with the uneven buzz cut, but the latter was hearing none of it. As an idealist, he hated using forces. He may be a ZAFT Commander, but unlike Yzak, he condemned himself in resolving hostile situation using words not fists. Unfortunately, in rare cases like this, he would have to opt for the latter.

"_Shut up_!" Buzz Cut shrieked, launching an unexpected punch at Kira.

Kira had no time to dodge and staggered slightly from the aftermath of the punch that grazed his chin, the punch had caught him off guard and he cursed himself. "Okay, I'm guessing that's a no," he muttered to himself.

Buzz Cut however was relentless and swung another fist towards Kira's head. It was one hell of a shot, but Kira learned from his earlier mistake and quickly ducked down. Before he could retaliate, a shout from the forgotten crowd halted his anticipated movement.

"The Police are here! Everybody stop!"

"Shit! Kira, we need to get out of here!" Dearka shouted from behind. Kira looked to find his friends standing victoriously in front of their respective foes and slightly smiled in relief. At least they pummeled the rest down with ease. He stole one last glance at his opponent who looked torn between continuing the assault or to escape after seeing how the rest of his buddies pitifully throttled down on the floor, nursing their injuries. As shallow as it may seems, Kira rather not face the law enforcers right now as much as his guilty conscience tells him to stay.

"Kira!" Athrun screamed in alarmed. Kira nodded in understanding and quickly followed the rest of his friends who were heading towards the back door. They pushed and shoved the frantic crowd that was making quite a chaos as they tried to escape from the place. The group managed to safely depart from the club to the back door which led them to an empty alley.

"I cannot believe we did that," Athrun mumbled with incredulity between gasp. He then glanced to the groom and chuckled lightly before adding, "He gave you a good hit there, huh, Kira?"

"It doesn't hurt that bad," Kira muttered defensively, frowning that out of the five of them, he was the one who managed to escape with an injury. Subconsciously he rubbed his sore chin.

A moment of silence fell amongst the men as they struggled to catch their breath.

"S-o," the only blond began slowly, breaking the silent moment. "On to the next destination?"

His companions stared at him with dumbfounded look save the silver-haired who was glaring dirtily at the blond.

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**September One, September City PLANTs**

Ink Splat, Piercing and Tattoo Parlor

_Yesterday, 2134 hours_

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"Why are we here, Dearka?" Kira asked exasperatedly after glancing at the place. This was not the destination that he had in mind after a disastrous fiasco that happened earlier.

Dearka could only grinned from ear to ear. "I'd figure we do something…out of our characters."

"By getting a tattoo," Yzak flatly deadpanned, not amused by the slightest of the absurd suggestion. The blond merely shrugged indifferently.

"I'd rather not," Shinn said, grimacing at the possibility of having a needle drawing a permanent artwork on his body.

Kira nodded in agreement. "Aren't tattoos supposed to be something that you should be considering for a long time before getting one? We don't exactly fit in that criteria since we're here in a spam."

The blond rolled his eyes. "Then go get a piercing. No one is leaving this place without some kind of artwork on his body."

The silver-head snorted. "Piercings are stupid."

"I bet Yzak is scared of the _itty bitty_ _needle,_" the needling blond piqued, making a horrendous mockery of a baby's voice.

Yzak knitted his brows together, glowering at the blond man. He chose to not interject but decided to question his absurd motives instead. "Why are we even doing this? We don't have to listen to you."

"Well, if you don't then…" Dearka trailed off as he pulled out his mobile device. He clicked on the application where he stored his photos and flipped to his triumph card. "Then I guess I'll just send _these photos_ to the least expected person you want."

Four pairs of eyes furrowed their brows in confusion. "_What_? What _pictures_?" Athrun asked in a sinking voice. Somehow, he had a bad feeling about this.

"Oh, I don't know. Just a few pictures from the club where you and that girl were getting quite cozy on the dance floor." The horror look on the bluenet's face was too comical when Dearka showed him the scandalous picture.

Honestly, it wasn't as if he wanted to, but the damn girl was too persistent and forced his hands around her. The cunning witch decided to take advantage of it by pulling herself closer to him. But seeing Dearka possessing something that might start a world war with Cagalli, it had taken quite the effect on him.

The devious blond then turned his smirking self to the groom. "And you Kira, man, I did_ not_ expect this from you. Hands all over her? I mean, _wow._" Kira's features went pale seeing the image. To his defense, the woman who had dragged him to the dance floor reminded him of his twin. Persistent, stubborn, and _scary._ He did not know how to handle the situation without hurting, or for lack of a better word _pissing_, the woman off. All he could do was dodge her advances by sidestepping whenever she leaned in too close in proximity.

"And Shinn," he began, slyly grinning at the now wide eyed Coordinator. "I wonder how our favorite female pilot would reaction seeing you _so_ close to this babe."

Shinn swallowed. Hard. Why did he have to be there when it happened? Damn, it wasn't as if he wanted to, the damn girl had caught him off guard and too advantage of the fact that he was clearly uncomfortable. Hence, the horrid image that by some means caught the second of moment when she had _forcibly _kissed him. It took his brain just a millisecond to process what happened before pushing her away. Damn minx. Damn the captain, too, for doing this to him.

"You! I can't believe you're blackmailing us!" Athrun cried out in disbelief.

"I could always pull ranks here," Kira warned, frowning at the blond.

Dearka mischievously smirked. "Well you go do it and this picture will be sent to your bride-to-be in the next second. Even if you do, we're currently not in the military."

"This has nothing to do with me since I wasn't dancing," Yzak snobbishly pointed out.

"Don't think you're off the hook easily, Yzak. I just happened to record you making a fool out of yourself when we were at the pub."

"You _WHAT_?!" The silver-haired screeched, angrily. Clearly he was not anticipating this at all.

The culprit merely shrugged, still having that blasted smugly smirk plastered on his face. "So, is everybody coming in or not?"

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* * *

**Maius One, Maius City PLANTs**

PLANTs International Air Shuttle Terminal

_Yesterday 2356 hours_

**.**

Maius One is the heartland of the largest Hub Terminals for civilians of the PLANTs colonies. Although all PLANTs colonies possessed Hub Terminals for civilian transportation, this specific colony is the home to the only international terminal in PLANTs—hence, it's the biggest—in which it is the sole threshold that permits outsiders from entering in and out of the nation under the discerning eyes of the military. The ZAFT forces sonorously monitors the area twenty-four-seven, with ZAFT soldiers stationed at every entrance and surveillance cameras glued at every angles there is, for any suspicious actions that may deem as an act of terrorists against the nation. In other words, it was one of the most highly secured places with tight security at every corner save Aprilius One—home of the PLANT Supreme Council and ZAFT Military Headquarters—and Armory One.

This late during the day, the terminal was almost a ghost town for who in their right mind who be traveling this late at night—with the exception of the highly active ZAFT forces—so it was a no brainer that the night shift personnel working at terminal were quite alarmed after witnessing five well-respected war heroes boisterously staggering inside the hub from the boarding dock looking quite _drunk_.

What perplexed them the most was four of the five men were prominent war veterans of the ZAFT Military Forces, notably Commander Yzak Joule; a man notorious for his hot-tempered trait and almost everyone in the military were frightened by him, Commander Kira Yamato; a kind hearted fellow who was notably engaged to their Chairwoman, Captain Dearka Elsman; a charismatic gentleman who has a way with swaying people be it men and women of all ages with his silver-tongue, and Lieutenant Shinn Asuka; a well-respected elite pilot who is known for his incredible skills with a mobile suit. While the last, Athrun Zala, was a former ZAFT Elite before renouncing his citizenship of PLANTs shortly after the Second Bloody Valentine War to become an Admiral of the Orb Military.

"Where are we right now?" A half-lidded, tinted face Commander Yzak Joule slurred to his companions of similar state.

"Hm, I don't know. We simply got aboard on a shuttle and ended up here." The charismatic Captain Elsman answered, tumbling his sentence together as if it was one word.

Realizing what the tanned Captain had said, the management personnel were quite shocked that none of their air traffic units from where ever the gentlemen were, alerted them that a group of well-known soldiers were going to be landing in Maius One, drunkenly walking aimlessly inside terminal.

Actually, disregard the part about them being perplexed about how the men were war heroes, what baffled them to the point where they are left most utterly speechless was their state of dress. They conceded the fact that the men were practically the only ones who were sane to be awake in this ungodly hour, but how they look so absolutely out of their character, now _that_ is something to seriously question.

The great and proud Commander Yzak had a scandalous bright red art that was inked on his _face. _Many of the personnel weren't quite sure whether they were being delusional because of the late hour or not but quickly rectified the possible notion after blinking rapidly. Nope. It's a tattoo alright.

Many of the ZAFT soldiers that were present noticed the oddly artwork on the Commander, too. Honestly, this was a comical situation. Never in their time serving under the ZAFT Military had they seen the Joule heir so lax and drunk. The image of the silver-haired Commander that was quite engraved in their brains was a Commander who ruled with a stick up his ass.

One brave soldier had the bold courage to surreptitiously pull out his mobile device to snap a quick picture of the drunken soldiers and another snap zooming dangerously to the Joule heir's face before quickly stuffing the device back inside his pocket. For sure, there will be quite the gossip back at the headquarters after tonight.

The others around Commander Yzak were in a similar state as him, covered in disorganized paint colors from top to bottom—minus visible tattoos—and most notably, Captain Elsman and Orb Admiral Zala were _topless_. The latter information sure quite got a lot of female personnel and soldiers blushing bashfully.

The terminal personnel quickly realized that they were openly gawking at the men before them and quickly brought themselves back to reality before marching towards the said men and swarming around them.

"Good evening, Commander Joule," the self-proclaimed leader of the group of personnel—since no one had the guts to start asking questions—addressed the silver-haired gentleman. "What pleasant surprise." Indeed it was. "Is there, perhaps, anything that you'd like us to help with? Like, say, getting you all home safely?" He offered politely, although the latter question seemed to be the hopeful inquiry that he'd like to hear from the silver-haired Commander.

The sluggish Commander merely stared blankly at the man before him in utter silence.

"We want to go on a trip!" The tanned blond Captain suddenly announced in place of the Commander.

"A _trip_?" The lead personnel parroted unsurely in question, doubtfully wondering of how to make of it.

"Yes, a trip!" Lieutenant Asuka conceded loudly. Everyone in the personnel group looked over at the raven-haired in astonishment.

"Sir?" The lead personnel said, looking expectantly at the silver-haired Commander. He decided that since the silver-head had the high authority in the bandwagon, he'd get an answer from him.

Yzak seemed to ponder on it before slowly nodding in confirmation. "You heard him, a trip."

"A-Alright, then. Where exactly do you anticipate this trip to be?"

"Somewhere fun!" and "Surprise me!" were the answers he got from the bandwagon, notably from the then quite Commander Kira and Lieutenant Asuka respectively.

The personnel looked from one soldier to the other in confusion. "Um, I apologize for this inconvenience, but the Hub Terminals to almost all colonies are almost closed."

"Then how about Earth?" The Orb Admiral suddenly suggested.

The leader choked. "E-_Earth_? This _late_?" Although the civilian shuttles that goes around the colonies have their curfews, the international one, particularly the shuttle going to Earth is open twenty-four-seven. But no one in their right mind would want to travel that far this late except for the few ludicrous workaholic businessmen whose life revolves around running their empires and of course, their very own ZAFT military personnel.

"Great! We request two private shuttles then," the blond Captain added, lazily grinning at the leader.

"_Two_?" The latter parroted in disbelief, almost choking. Honestly, just how much can this situation be more comically unpredictable?

"Request that the pilots of the shuttle to disembark if you please," Kira added unexpectedly.

"_Pilots to disembark_?" Now this has gotten everyone's attention, be it the management or military personnel around them.

"We are elite soldiers so we are capable of operating complex machines, hence, a mere shuttle is a no brainer for us," Athrun conceded confidently, smiling a drunken smile at the flabbergasted man before them.

"_Capable of operating_?" The poor man seemed rather frazzled and distressed, it was no wonder that he kept repeating whatever he heard like a broken record.

"Will that a problem, mister?" The Joule heir questioned darkly, daring the man in question to decline abiding any of their wishes.

"No! Not a problem at all, Commander!" The leader quickly replied as he shook his head to absolute his answer even more. He nervously laughing at the awkward situation at hand, looking at his left and right at his colleagues. "I'll prepare you two private shuttles right away!" Call him a coward, but he'd rather not face the wrath of a high ranking officer—a quite _drunken_ one as a matter-of-factly—and by the looks of the other personnel, he vouched for them. If anything were to go wrong, they'll let the big guys in the military handle it. After all, they were civilians trying to comply with a military personnel's command.

The man practically ran to the operating room to attend to their wishes with a herd of other personnel tailing right behind him.

"You, Solider!" Yzak suddenly pointed at the closest Green Coat in his line of vision.

A blurry flash image of a Green Coat soldier immediately stood before the Commander with an ungodly energetic salute that contrast to the late time. "Sir, yes, sir!"

"Identify yourself," he demanded in a clip tone.

"Sir, I am Lieutenant Arnold Merriweather of the Randolph Squadron! ZAFT Identification Number two-four-one—"

A hand halted the young soldier from continuing his mandatory formal introduction. "At ease, Lieutenant. I got the information I needed. Now are you familiar with General Jonas Yeager?"

A curious look fell across the soldier's face before he immediately changed it back to an expressionless look. "O-Of course, sir!"

"Good, I would like you to send a message to HR regarding the general for me."

"A message, sir?" He echoed questionably, unsure if he had heard right.

"You're quite the scatterbrain if you must repeat what I had to say," the Joule heir commented unperturbedly.

A quizzical look graced the young lieutenant face. "Sir?"

Yzak shook his head. This is why he cannot _stand_ incompetent soldiers. "Disregard that last comment, Lieutenant. Anyways, yes, _a message_. Are you able to procure a pen and paper at this moment?"

"R-Right away, sir!" He fished the inside of his green uniform and pulled out the said pen and a notepad. He held the pen with his right hand before opening to a blank section of the booklet.

"Good. Now if you please, scrawl down what I am about to say and send it to HR and a copy to the General as soon as you can."

The Green Coat soldier-turned-Scriber/Messenger nodded anxiously at the Commander awaiting his next command.

"To the Department of Human Resources of ZAFT Military Headquarters," Yzak began.

"I am writing this letter to lodge a formal complaint against ZAFT Military General Jonas Yeager of the 8th Fleet. I feel that I have been given unfair treatment because of my incapability of handling inadequate subordinates who are incline to boastfully feel that they are superior than their senior officers. Although General Yeager has been quite the admirable general that the ZAFT Forces proudly accredit, I feel that he passes me up for counterproductive tasks that hinders me from accomplishing functions that are deemed of great relevance.

"In addition, I believe that I do not have the luxury or the time to idly fool around with contemptuous underlings, a specific subordinate if I may boldly add. So if it is possible, I would like to reevaluate a certain Lieutenant that has been recently assigned to my squadron in question.

"Lieutenant Connery Stilt of the Joule Squadron is the soldier that I would like to look into.

"His unacceptable, intolerant, insubordinate, blasphemous, disdainful, moronic, presumptuous attitude had appalled me to no end and as his commanding officer, I have the right to investigate his case. It is a mockery to the ZAFT Military Forces that he was given the privilege to wear a ZAFT Red Elite uniform. His attitude and skills are not in par and meet the standards of the exclusive title. I request a full investigation and reevaluation on the said Lieutenant.

"I appreciate your cooperation regarding this compliant and would like an appropriate response as soon as possible. I thank you once again.

"Sincerely, Commander Yzak Joule of the Joule Squadron, ZAFT Identification Number three-two-nine-six-four-four-eight."

By the end, the scriber could only gaped his mouth wide open as he dutifully jot down the monologue the Commander had entrusted him to do.

"Did you get it all, Lieutenant?" Yzak finally asked, looking quite scornfully at the poor lad.

"Y-Yes, sir!" Was all he could reply, stammering his way through.

The good Commander gave a solemn nod in appreciation. "I thank you for your help, Lieutenant. You are dismissed." Bashfully, the Green Coat straightened himself and saluted the superior officers before retreating.

Once the Green Coat retreated, Yzak turned to face his intoxicated friends who were looking at the silver-head Commander in awed.

"Wow, Yzak, I never knew that you had it in you. Filing a complaint? Let alone, against old man Yeager?" Dearka supplied with half-lidded eyes, smiling droopily.

"I have just about had it with that old potentate," Yzak spat bitterly. "He knows just how much I cannot stand dealing with arrogant underlings. I _do not_ and _will not_ take crap from soldiers like that."

The management personnel came out of the operating room and trudged towards the men in question. "Commander, your shuttles are ready in the docking area," he anxiously informed the intoxicated soldiers, avoiding any eye contacts.

"Good. Yzak, Kira, Athrun, go to the second shuttle. I'm putting our youngster here in the first one." He didn't wait for a response from them for he was already dragging Shinn to the dock towards the first shuttle.

Dearka snaked an arm around the youngest companion's shoulder. He pulled him closer to whisper in his ears. "You said that you wanted to go somewhere fun, Shinn?"

"Aye, aye, _Cap'n_!" The raven-head wobbly saluted with a cheeky grin.

"Good! Since you're way drunker than I am, I'm going to set this thing into autopilot. All you have to do is sit back and enjoy your trip, Lieutenant!"

"Aye, aye_, Cap'n_!" Shinn repeated. He was then ushered inside the shuttle by his Captain, seating himself in the backseat. Dearka quickly made his way to the pilot's cockpit and set the operating system into autopilot.

"There! You're all set!" Dearka cheerfully claimed. He glanced to the back to find his subordinate fast asleep on the seat. He chuckled at the sight before stepping out of the spacecraft and closing the hatch. Immediately, the shuttle launched itself out of the dock and into space.

"Everyone good?" Kira asked the crowd as the blond entered the second shuttle. Kira took command in the pilot seat while the rest were settled in the back of the private spacecraft. Everyone nodded. "Alright! Let's go!"

As the second shuttle disembarked the docking area, all the personnel and soldiers looked outside the window at the retreating shuttles apprehensively. They questioned if they've done the right thing by letting those senior officers escape with two private shuttles.

"Please inform the Chairwoman about this incident," the awestruck personnel told the soldier nearest him. "I believe she has the right to know in order to take the appropriate action."

The soldier couldn't agree more for he was already making his way out of the terminal to report the bizarre incident to headquarters.

.

.

**.**

* * *

**Buenos Aires, United States of South America**

Buenos Aires International Air Shuttle Terminal

_Present; 1218 hours (less than 7 hour until the wedding)_

.

"_Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to __welcome__ you to _Buenos Aires International Air Shuttle Terminal_. __Local time__ is 1218 hours and the __temperature__ is 17.8 degrees Celsius. Please check around your seat for any __personal belongings__ you may have brought on board with you and please use caution when opening the __overhead bins__, as heavy articles may have shifted around during the flight. On behalf of _Mars Air Shuttle Flight GH240_ and the entire crew, I'd like to __thank you__ for joining us on this trip and we are looking forward to seeing you on board again in the near future. Have a nice day!"_

"Shut _up_!" Yzak cried out as he scornfully looked up at the PA system above him. The sound of the pilot's cheery voice was an antithesis of Yzak's ever growing dark mood and hearing the chirpy captain was not making it any better. His other three companions flinched at the irascible silver-head's tone sudden raise in volume.

"Yzak, you should really stop scowling," Dearka calmly suggested, glancing at the angry elite pilot beside him. The silver-haired merely huffed angrily before hastily getting up from his seat and marched down the alley. Other passengers who saw the angry commander quickly stepped aside to let the man go on before them.

Kira and Athrun sighed at the temporal commander as they watched him depart from the shuttle ahead of them. Really, they couldn't blame the Joule heir for being angry at their current dilemma, they too were quite dismayed by this whole sudden turn of event. But nevertheless they held it in for it is a fruitless action if they were to get angry because of this.

The duration of their flight from the red planet to Earth has been one excruciating long trip for the four Coordinators. They have been quite anxious—well Yzak was mostly scowling the whole time since he managed to make almost all stewardess in the shuttle avoid him like plague—as they keep looking at the time of the monitor in front of their seats.

"Well, we should go after him," Kira suggested as he easily got off of his seat and begin to walk down the aisle. "He's probably going to be waiting for us."

"But what are we supposed to do now? Although the USSA aren't quite hostile with Coordinators and PLANTs like the Atlantic Federation, they are still part of the EA," Athrun pointed out, a concern look graced his feature as he followed right behind the brown-haired Coordinator.

"Well, it's not like we wanted to be here in the first place," Dearka grumbled behind Athrun. "I don't know if that Junk Guild did this on purpose but it's still going to be hard for us to return to PLANTs."

"I don't think Lowe did it on purpose," Kira defended, frowning at the possibility that their Natural friend would put them up to such cruel trick since it was not in his character to do such thing. "I believe it was an honest mistake on his part."

Dearka rolled his eyes. "Well, be it a mistake or not we're stuck here."

The three soldiers quickly made their way out of the shuttle, slighting smiling at the flight attendants who were saying their goodbyes to the passengers who were disembarking before making their inside the terminal.

.

"Goddamn it! This place is _useless_! There is not _one_ damn shuttle that goes to PLANTs!" The said silver-haired exclaimed as he made his way towards his other companions. A look of irritation fell on his face as his lips curled into a snarl.

"Well, considering that this nation is part of the EA, it's no wonder that there are no flights that goes to ZAFT territories," Athrun logically pointed out, grimacing. Although he had said it, he still couldn't help but to make a face at the fact.

Kira frowned at the Joule heir for he had suspicion on how the latter got his information. "Yzak, don't tell me you terrorized the poor women stationed at the concierge desk."

Yzak scoffed, feeling not one bit guilty about doing such thing. "It's not my fault that Naturals here are so stupid." Both the brunet and the bluenet sighed in resignation. Even though they knew that Yzak had made a vast progression regarding his views on Naturals—since two of his friends _were_ dating Naturals—in last several years since the wars have ended, he hadn't really quite drop his prejudices against them. Hence, his tendency to backslide was going to take sometimes to drop all together. Habitually, whenever he would encounter space pirates and terrorists who happens to be Naturals during missions, he would insult their genetic makeup to piss them off, something that Kira would frown upon.

"Perhaps one glance at Yzak's tattoo had scared them away," the needling blonde snickered.

The said silver-head glared daggers at the enigmatic blonde and seethed, "You're asking for your death wish, Elsman. I advise you to shut the hell up."

The Elsman heir wisely kept his witty retort to himself but nevertheless he let out another snicker in amusement.

"Look, we don't we ask for a plane ride to Orb? After all, unlike the USSA, Orb is a neutral entity so they're bound to have diplomacy with other nations regardless of them being in the EA or neutral," the Orb Admiral recommended thoughtfully.

"You're forgetting that we don't have any money, Athrun," the Elsman heir flatly reminded his companions.

"This place is not like Mars or PLANTs, so we can't have them tab the bills under our names since this is no longer in our jurisdiction." Yzak added on, slapping a hand on his forehead before slowly dragging it down the length of his face in frustration.

Kira closed his eyes, savoring the momentarily tranquil second before running a hand through his brown locks. "Well, I guess we need to work our way out then."

"Wait a minute, don't tell me you're suggesting that we actually have to do labor to get money?" Dearka exclaimed.

"Then what do you suggest us to do, Dearka? We have no money, we lost our mobile devices, and we have nothing."

"You've got to be kidding me," the blond muttered in disdain. Quite frankly, he doesn't mind performing manual labors, after all, he was a soldier and was trained rigorously during his time at the Academy. But after surviving a crash in Mars and recovering from the biggest hangover of his life, a wise one tends to_ avoid_ doing any strenuous activities.

"I believe it's wise if we don't mention that we're Coordinators from PLANTs. The war might be long over but there's still discrimination regarding our race," Athrun wisely supplied. "Remember, there are still some terrorists active around."

"So tell me, Kira, how are we supposed to find a job here since we don't know anyone?"

"I'm sorry_, __señores_, I couldn't help but overhear your conversation. Are you perhaps looking for a temporary job?"

Four heads turned their gaze to the owner of the voice and find a young woman with platinum blonde hair and sun-kissed tan looking expectantly at the four Coordinators with her doe brown orbs.

"Yes, I'm sorry but might I ask who are you?" Kira asked, cautiously looking at the slightly older woman before them.

"Ah, _lo siento_ _señores, _my name is Marina Fernandez. My father runs a ranch not far from here. We happened to be short on staff. If you are willing to do manual labors, we have openings." She looked at the appalled men before her and added, "And we'll pay handsomely."

"We'll take it," Yzak automatically said.

"Yzak!" Athrun called out, giving him the what-the-hell look.

"Shut up, Zala." He silenced the blue-head with a look. "The woman offered a good deal and money. We are soldiers so helping out in a ranch isn't going to be much of a problem."

Kira sighed, Yzak's right. They don't know anyone here and the kind woman offered them a job within the first minute they got here. "Alright." He turned to the kind woman and smiled. "So when do we start."

Marina smiled. "Follow me. You start today."

.

The minute they stepped foot in the ranch area, they were greeted by an elder man. He was neither smiling nor frowning but simply gave Marina a look of wonder, curiously looking at the unfamiliar faces trailing behind his daughter.

"Papa, these gentlemen are willing to fill in the vacant positions. They are Kira," she gestured a hand towards the said brown-haired who greeted the man with a warm smile.

"Athrun." The blue-haired smiled politely.

"Dearka." The blond merely smirked and saluted the man informally.

"And Yzak." Yzak didn't smile like the rest but he merely nodded.

"Everyone, this is my father, Alejandro Fernandez," Marina greeted fondly, looking softly at her aging father beside her. The man didn't response for he was simply observing at the soldiers before him.

The aging man regarded the soldiers in front of him with excruciating eyes. He looked at Dearka first before saying, "_Hombre rubio_." Dearka only could give the said man a quizzical look, unable to comprehend what he just said to him.

He then looked over at Yzak, examining the silver-haired commander with calculating eyes from top to bottom. He stared longer at the unique hair the man had before him and slightly smirked at the mesmerizing ink on his face. After about a minute of contemplating and scratching his chin, the old man scoffed as he raised a questioning brow. "_Mariquita_?"

The Joule heir could only furrowed his brows in confusion. "What did he just call me?" Yzak whispered curiously to Dearka as he casted a wary look to the man in question.

The blond shrugged indifferently. "I don't speak Spanish, buddy." He didn't sound very apologetic.

The Natural then switched his gaze to Athrun, staring at the bluenet with interest before nodding in approval. "_Guapo_." The Admiral could only give a hesitant nod, unsure if he just insulted or complemented him.

Kira slightly flinched as the man's sharp gaze fell to him. The latter frowned, almost as if he looked slightly disappointed at what's before him. "_Débil_?"

"Did he just called me a devil?" Kira muttered to himself.

Pairs of worn out boots were suddenly thrown to their feet along with working gloves.

"You want us to put it on?" Kira asked, looking a tad bit confused to the older man.

Alejandro nodded sharply. "_Si_. Wear now. We work right now. Hurry," he gruffly ordered. The Coordinators quietly complied, although Yzak didn't look like he was enjoying being ordered one bit.

.

"How long do we have to do this again?" Dearka asked exasperatedly for the umpteenth time.

"Dearka, stop complaining and just keep working," Kira sternly suggested the blond who was resting his head on top of the raking pole.

He and Dearka were assigned in tending the vegetation garden. Athrun was in charge of the heavy lifting with Alejandro near them while Yzak, much to his chagrin, was stuck tending the mares in the stable with Marina.

"Oh, let me get that for you," Athrun offered and assisted the older man, who was having a hard time lifting a bag full of grains, without a second thought. The older man silently gaze at the bluenet with blank stare before confirming his suspicious.

"You Coordinator?" Alejandro asked in his heavy Spanish accent. Although from the way he said it, it was more of a statement of verification than a question. The Coordinator visibly flinched at the correct assumption

They hadn't meant to lie to him, it was rather just a subject they decided to not bring up hoping to avoid any conflicts. "Uh, is that a problem, sir?" Athrun asked cautiously. Quite frankly, he's unsure what to do if it was going to be a problem.

The man merely shook his head, an action that Athrun and the rest had not been expecting. "_No_. _No es un problema_." He softly said before walking away, leaving the Coordinators looking at his retreating form quite perplexed.

"My father sides with anyone who is against the Atlantic Federation," Marina supplied to the confused soldiers as she and Yzak made their way towards them.

"Why?" Kira inquired. Although he doesn't blame the man for having such hostility. The Atlantic Federation was the super power in the AEF and it was thoroughly infiltrated by Blue Cosmos especially in the higher ranks.

"If you remember, the Atlantic Federation forcibly annexed Porta Panama from us for the Mass Driver and the military base. We had no choice but to comply since we have no military forces of our own. After the first war, we fought for independence. And I believe some ZAFT soldiers were one of those who helped us gain it."

"That's right. I believed Hahnenfuss fought in the USSA war for independence," Yzak muttered subconsciously.

Due to his enhanced hearing ability, the blond quickly picked up what the silver-haired had muttered and slyly grinned. "Thinking about your girlfriend?" Dearka teased knowingly.

"Shut _up_, Dearka!"

"Yes. Well, my father and I could care less if you were Coordinators or Naturals. We are, after all, still human beings." Marina smiled softly before looking up at the blazing sun with a hand shielding it from light. "It's getting rather hot in here. I'll bring you boys some cool drinks for your break. In the meantime, just finish what you were doing before heading back inside." She waved a small goodbye before going towards the direction her father had gone to.

"Didn't expect that," Dearka admitted, scratching his nape.

Kira and Athrun nodded in agreement.

Yzak on the other hand was quite preoccupied looking at a distracting figure from the forest nearby the ranch. Earlier he couldn't sworn he saw an unusual movement but after hearing a fainted scream from the ominous direction, he began to suspect that something, or rather someone, was inside in trouble.

While the others were aimlessly chatting, Yzak decided to slowly walk towards the intruding forest, hoping to ease his curiosity.

"Oi, Yzak! Where are you going?" Dearka yelled, realizing that their silver-haired friend had left the group to walk towards the forest. Quickly, his other two friends join in to jog towards the silver-haired.

"_Shh_! Did you hear that?" Yzak hushed and asked the rest.

Dearka looked at the silver-haired weirdly. "Hear what?"

"_That_!" The silver-head insisted. He pointed towards the empty forest. The rest tried to understand what he was referring to, but even with their enhanced hearing, they couldn't quite pick up what was so unusual about the forest. But instead of hearing what Yzak said, they _saw_ a figure. A figure that looks like a human who was running_ fast_ towards them.

"Hey, isn't that…Lieutenant Asuka?" Dearka pointed out, squinting his eyes.

The brown-haired eyes widen at the mention of his subordinate. "What?! Where?!" Kira inquired frantically, hoping to see a glimpse of their lost comrade.

"Over there! Look!"

"Holy shit that _is_ Shinn!" Athrun conceded in astonishment, not believing what his eyes were seeing.

"Shinn, over here!" Kira cried out, happily, waving a hand up in the air.

The boy who was running closer by the second didn't respond, for he was too engross running hard. Now that they think about it, it almost as if he's running away from something.

"Shinn?"

"Get out of the way get out of the way get out of the way!" Instead of hearing what they hope the raven-haired would greet them, he simply bypassed them, zooming with an incredible speed.

"Hey! Asuka! What's wrong with you?!" Yzak angrily bellowed, insulted that their underling ignored them.

"RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! RUN I SAY!" He cried, trailing off as he got farther away from them.

Dearka could only blinked owlishly. "What the hell was that?"

"What is he talking about?"

"Um, guys?" Kira called out, with uncertainty laced in his tone.

"What?" Yzak said, a hint of bitter in his tone.

"I think I have a good idea why Shinn told us to run. Look." The boys turned back to the forest to see what Kira had pointed out and immediately paled.

There, just a few meters away from them in the forest, stood a large tiger with big wide eyes looking from one Coordinator to the other. He let out a low snarl as the beast took slow steps forward.

"O-kay, maybe we should run. Like now," for once, the blond had a wise suggestion.

The rest of his companions nodded rapidly. "Good idea," Kira replied, swallowing hard.

The beast glared as he snapped his sharp teeth together, baring its large fangs at the now alarmed Coordinators. The predator made a beastly roar before leaping from its stand and lunging towards his preys.

"_RUN_!"

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* * *

**A/N**: Sorry for the long wait people! This chapter was pretty hard and long to write. Please excuse my Spanish for it has been a very long time since I used it, plus it's not my first language. So if any Spanish speaking readers are willing to correct I will be so grateful! :D I got some words off of google translate so I'm pretty sure that there's bound to be mistakes. And we have Shinn now! I feel so bad about leaving him out for such a long time I'd figure it's time for him to come and rejoin the squad.

I've read in Gundam Wiki that Shiho fought in the War for Independence in the USSA shortly after the first BV war ended.

I'll expand their experience at the tattoo parlor in the next chapter. It was getting too long so I decided to just put it into two parts.

And I've uploaded a new story called '7 Steps on How to Court Shiho Hahnenfuss'! For my ShihoxYzak fans, I hope you'll try this story! It's a short story that's filled with humor and romance! I only uploaded the first chapter for a test so let me know what you think about it so I can continue! I'll get on with that story after finishing this one!

Anyways, I hoped you all enjoy this chapter! Thank you for reading and please review!

Translation:

_Mariquita_\- The word "mariquita" is much more harmless than calling a person "maricon" or "marica" which are insulting words to say 'gay' (I don't condemn using such vulgar words to insult someone). The ending "-ita" means "little" so the word would really translate into "pansy" or "fairy," much more innocent words.

_Hombre rubio_\- The word literally means "blond man."

_Guapo_\- Handsome

Débil- Weak

.

**Lenora Jime**\- Yes, I totally agree. Yzak does look manly at least in my opinion :) Plus don't you think his tattoo matches his temper?

**IgNighted**\- Thank you for reviewing! Hahaha yes, I'm going to expand their time in the tattoo parlor in the next chapter :)

**animeboy-12**\- Thank you for reviewing! Yes, I mentioned earlier in the first chapter that this story was inspired by The Hangovers :D

**Maria-Reynne**\- Can't spoil the ending girl! Hehe, you see in the future chapter, not next, but soon :D

**Blackberrymint**\- Haha! Yes, poor Yzak! Girrrllllaaa it's like you've read my mind! It all happens in the next chapter!


	5. Chapter 5

**A Series of Unfortunate Events**

Chapter 5

foureyesfreak27

**Summary:** Post-GSD. In which a bachelor's party was destined to go downhill from the start…

**Disclaimer:** I do not own GS/GSD.

**Character(s):** Kira Yamato, Athrun Zala, Dearka Elsman, Yzak Joule, and Shinn Asuka.

**A/N:** Hi everyone! Sorry for the delay!

**Warning**: This chapter has not been fully edited yet. Please excuse any grammatical errors.

* * *

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**September One, September City PLANTs**

Ink Splat, Piercing and Tattoo Parlor

_Yesterday, 2204 hours_

.

"S-o, where do you want it?"

"I hate you," Yzak seethed to the blond next to him, ignoring the artist's question. His knitted brows showed just how much he wasn't thrilled being where they are.

"Well, it's not the first time you've said that to me," the teasing blond mused. He had already gotten a small tattoo on his left shoulder blade. He had told the artist to surprise him as long as the artwork wasn't too extravagant. Before the artist started working on his magic, he had asked a few personal questions about Dearka to have some sort of inspiration. After all, tattoos were permanent and the artist was not going to give the benefit of the doubt in making a mistake. Dearka, oddly enough, decided to rather have a tattoo than a piercing. According to him, he doesn't like the feeling of having a man-made hole anywhere in his body.

Yzak on the other hand was vexed on doing such atrocious thing. Any kind of body arts were not his forte, and the damn Elsman knows that very well. As much as he wanted to throttle the blond for getting him in this kind of situation, he knew that the cunning Elsman heir would go on and send those stupid videos of him rashly making a fool out of himself to his squadron. He had to hand it to the blond, this was one fucked up yet ingenious way to blackmail him.

The artist tapped his foot impatiently next to Yzak and repeated his question once again, "Um, pal, the _piercing_?"

Yzak threw a glare at the artist who quickly shut his mouth in an instant. He was in no mood to converse with his supposed artist at this moment. "Can't you see I'm trying to reason with this fool, you imbecile? Come back in a minute."

The artist looked utterly offended. But he didn't retort back and opted to mumble something about rude customers. He huffed before rising up from his seat to leave the officers alone for a bit. Before he left, he sent a small glare at his customer before disappearing behind the curtains in the back.

After Dearka confirmed that the artist was out of sight, he turned back to his fuming friend who was proudly wearing a frown on his face. Honestly, the blond couldn't blame the poor man. He was angry, slightly drunk, annoyed, and forced to do something unbecoming. Having made his buddies do this with him reminded the blond that they do have a life besides the military. He had never actually have a proper teenage-hood where he could act all brash and wild, attending parties from right to left. His entire life he'd been living the military rules. As a military brat, he was expected to join the military once he hit the age of consent and he did.

He didn't know why he joined, he had no true incentive other than pleasing his old man and uphold the image of the Elsman family.

Yzak had always lived by the rules, so it was no wonder to him that the silver-head acted like someone who's older than his true age. He was raised that responsibility and honor were priorities, hence, he felt bounded to join the military. It doesn't harm the fact that his mother was in the Council like Dearka's father so it was a no brainer that he joined.

Kira on the other hand was a different story. A first generation Coordinator who was unwillingly thrust into partaking the wars for the sole and noble purpose of protecting his friends. The first time Dearka met him and was introduced as the Strike pilot, he was doubtful and baffled. Kira didn't look so much as a soldier let alone a pilot of an advanced G-weapon. And what truly shocked him was when he was told that he was simply a civilian from Heliopolis.

Athrun had joined the military because he had wanted to prevent a catastrophic occurrence like Junius Seven to happen again. Granted, like Yzak and him, he had a parent on the Council and as a prodigy son, he was expected to join, despite his views on wars. It was cruel fate that he had to face his best friend on the battlefield.

And finally, Shinn. Poor kid. He joined ZAFT after his whole family was killed during the evacuation in Orb when the Atlantic Federation tried to annex their Mass Driver and Morgenroete. He enlisted while being blinded by hatred for his home country and bore resentment against the noble families.

Perhaps the real reason why he's doing this was to remind himself that he wasn't just a soldier with bloodied hands, he was human. A human who hasn't even reach the age of thirty in a long shot but had gone through numerous battlefields and still lives on today. Doing something out of character reminded him that they have nothing to lose.

"Yzak, don't tell me you're afraid of needles," he remarked, teasingly, raising an enquiring brow. He didn't even realized that Yzak was silently seething, pursing his lips.

Silence was met.

Dearka blinked. His eyes widen before his small smirk evolves into a large mischievous grin. "Oh my god, you are!"

Yzak turned away, whether it was shame or annoyance, his face was evidently red. "Shut up, Dearka," he spat.

The loud blond didn't stop there, he kept poking at it, enjoying the moment too much. "No wonder you loathed the military's mandatory monthly check-ups from the doctors! You're afraid of needles!"

"I said shut _up_, Dearka!" The fair-head roared, blushing a shade darker than before. The blond burst into a fit of laughter.

Some things just never gets old.

.

"You have something strong to numb the pain? My buddy here can't handle needles." After relentlessly needling the silver-head, the blond decided to put him out of his misery and talk to the artist in the back to help him with his trypanophobia.

The artist gave the tanned blond solider a sardonic look. "We're not a _hospital_, pal. We don't have antithetic to give to wimpy customers."

Dearka inwardly sighed. "Well anything similar to that? You can tell that my buddy is rather…prone to be violent, especially when he's nervous."

"No kidding," muttered the other man. The artist then stopped to ponder a possible alternative for the treatment. "Although, I believe we have something else to loosen up your friend."

The ace pilot quirked an interested brow and shrugged indifferently. "I'm all ears, dude."

.

Perhaps giving the slightly drunk silver-haired Commander more alcohol was a bad idea. The rest of his comrades and the artist simply looked stumped at their highly intoxicated silver-head. At the request from Dearka, Yzak had gulped down the 'water bottle' in hopes to ease his nerves from the imminent pain of piercings. Unbeknownst to him that the so called water bottle was actually refilled with strong liqueur.

Athrun had opted for small tattoo on his back. It was an image of the ZAFT flag, a remembrance of the dutiful time he had served faithfully for PLANTs. Although he may be an Orb Admiral, he could never forget the times he had spent under ZAFT. Both Kira and Shinn took the feasible option of piercing their ears. Kira had no problems with needles but a tattoo was just something he wasn't up for. Shinn never liked this whole idea to begin with, he was simply complying on behalf of Dearka's words for the latter to not send those heinous pictures to Lunamaria. After all, there was a reason why she graduated ZAFT Military Academy as Red Coat, and he was not readily to die in the hands of a jealous woman.

They watch their once prideful comrade giggling one second and singing the PLANT's national anthem patriotically the next. All in all, they were witnessing him go through one hell of a sadistic and emotional roller coaster ride. The Coordinators were flabbergasted to the point that they weren't sure how to react, needless to say that they had been witnessing this quite amusing yet sad affair for the past fifteen minutes wince the silver-haired male chugged down the liqueur within seconds it was handed to him.

The artist blinked owlishly. After being silent for a long period of time, he managed to say, "…Come again?"

"Tattoo_ and_ piercings." The crimson tint on the silver-haired male's face went a shade darker as he looked thoroughly annoyed repeating his answer once again.

"Um, buddy, are you sure?" The tattoo artist asked unsurely.

"Yes I'm positive! I am not a coward like Zala over there who gets their tattoos on their back! Yamato and Asuka just got piercings! I want both! Display it on the face! I don't care what you draw but make sure it's better than theirs!"

"Tattoo? On the _face_?" He spluttered, almost choking at the absurd suggestion.

Icy blue orbs glared at the man hovering over the owner. "Did I stutter?"

"No, but…"

"Good. Now proceed."

"But are you sure about the five piercings? That's a bit overwhelming, especially since you're a first timer," the artisan reasoned advisedly.

The young Commander looked dead straight in the eyes of the other man. "Look here, buddy. My hands are stained with so much blood that I've lost count on the endless numbers of people I've killed during the two bloody wars up to now. I've seen the bloods of my comrades spilled countlessly in battlefields after battlefields. I've gone through hell and back, surviving this long and got nothing to lose. I'm sure that the pain of five simple piercings are nothing compared to the traumatic experiences I've been through," he deadpanned.

A shiver ran down his spine as those narrowed blue eyes bore on him. Letting out an exasperated sigh, the artist relent and gave in. "If you say so. Just don't come barging back here the next day in anger and regret."

.

Kira whispered a hesitantly suggestion to Dearka, "Hey, Dearka, shouldn't we stop him?" He stared warily at the artist who was hesitantly preparing the inks and needles. Judging the numerous of earrings that were displayed on the tray, the artisan was going to do the piercings first.

Dearka shook his head, nevertheless an amused grin was plastered across his lips. "Nah. Tried earlier. He almost choked me for mentioning that Athrun got a tattoo instead of a piercing. You know how Yzak gets all competitive and whatnot when it's concerning Athrun." The snide comment made Athrun chuckled.

"You're kidding," Shinn gasped. It was enough for him to settle with a simple piercing on his left ear. But hearing how the silver-head wanted_ five_ piercings and a tattoo on the _face_, well, that's just beyond imaginable.

The blond shook his head. "I kid you not, my friend. I agree with Athrun, I valued my life too much to die in the hands of a drunken Yzak," he solemnly repeated those words, as if they were vows.

"Hey guys!" the artist suddenly called out. "Any ideas what kind of tattoo this punk should have?"

Athrun bobbed his head towards Yzak's direction. "Why don't you go and ask him?"

"Well I would, but he dozed off just now." He pointed to the said man. A chorus of sighs were released.

"I don't know, what do you think, Dearka?" Kira looked at the blond who was peering at his friend in amusement. "You are his best friend, after all."

Dearka raised his hands up in defense and shook his head. "Hey, don't ask me, if he wakes up and finds out that it was me who suggested the tattoo, he'll bare his fangs at me. Remember, I have the misfortune of seeing him every day at work."

"Red Dragon," whispered a voice.

The older men blinked as they turned their gazes to the youngest one in the vicinity.

"Shinn?" Kira said, questionably.

The red-eyed Coordinator shrugged. "Draw a Red Dragon," he repeated, staring at the men who all looked startled by the suggestion. "It matches his personality anyways."

.

"What is he doing?" Athrun wondered, scrunching his brows in confusion as he watched the silver-head digging inside his pocket. Before anyone could answer, Yzak procured his mobile phone and fiddled with the touch screen.

The Coordinators didn't even realized that the time had elapsed substantially since they were too enticed with the artist flawlessly embedded the red ink, etching it into a brilliant image of a smoldering red dragon onto Yzak's face. They didn't even realized that the tattoo artist had finished with his job for they were too engrossed examining the bright and newly plastered ink that was paraded to the open. The artist had excused himself earlier, mentioning something about washing his hands and left the five Coordinators to themselves. Kira had insisted on being the one who paid the fee since it was his bachelor's party, although Dearka had mentioned earlier that it was quite unorthodox for the groom to be paying since the de facto benefactor had to be the best man; Athrun. The bluenet scowled, but nevertheless he was the one who paid in honor of his status as the best man.

The silver-haired pilot then pulled back away from the phone, allowing the others to finally hear the sound of ringing on speaker.

"I don't know, I believe he's trying to make a call?" Shinn offered, taking note of the familiar ringing.

"Well, he's putting the call on speaker, I'm assuming he would like us to hear it, too," Dearka snickered in amusement. He too wondered who the silver-haired male was trying to reach.

"Who's he calling?" The raven-head chimed in questioningly.

The blond shrugged. "Perhaps he's drunk calling his beloved mother."

"She'll surely have a heart attack," Athrun muttered, giving Yzak a disapproving look. How he was going to get out of this mess was a wonder to him.

They patiently waited for the other line to pick up and bet good money that the person who the former Duel pilot was trying to contact with will not answer given the late hour. Surprisingly, after the sixth ring, the person finally picked up. But what shocked the Coordinators the most was the identity of the voice, whom earlier they assumed was his mother but turned out _not_ being.

"_Hello,_ _Commander?_" the familiar voiced groggily responded, sounding shockingly surprised and tired. Judging by the raspy tone she had, she was awaken by the irrational and abrupt call.

"Hello Shiho!" He slurred in an unfamiliar cheery sing-a-song voice that his comrades were not accustomed hearing, especially since it was coming from him.

By the sound of sheets rustling, the rest—save the drunken fair-head—assumed that she was alarmed by the un-Yzak tone and was more alerted judging by the tone of her voice. _"…Commander…why are you calling me this late_?"

"Huh? I dunno. I just wanted to call you, is that bad?" He chuckled. Behind him, his companions looked mortified by his sudden lackadaisical attitude. This was clearly _not_ the Yzak that they know.

"Hey, Yzak, I think you should hang up now," Athrun advised. He trotted towards his drunken friend and attempted to grab the phone from the silver-head. The drunken pilot simply swatted his hand away, glaring at his self-proclaimed rival. He put an index finger on his lips, indicating the other party to be silent. Athrun looked hesitant, itching to save his friend from the possible humiliation he's putting himself for.

Dearka patted a hand on Athrun's shoulder. "Just let him be, Athrun. Let him talk to his favorite girl. I want to see what our Commander has to say to Shiho."

"Does he have her number on speed dial or something?" Kira whispered to Dearka, who in response snickered out loud.

"You can say that again."

Their attention was then averted back to the drunken platinum haired commander who was preoccupied with his phone.

Yzak had his eyes half-lidded as he drunkenly gaze upon his phone. Shocking his comrades, he began to wail in a child-like tone. "Shiho! Why are you so mean? You won't even call me by my given name!"

His ace pilot was unsurprisingly silent. They don't blame her since they guessed that she too was rendered speechless by Yzak's unbecoming character. "_Uh…are you by any chance, drunk, Sir?_"

Yzak laughed out loud, once again bringing the attention of everyone in the room as they gaped openly at the silver-head. "Me? Drunk? Of course not! I just felt like calling you to hear your voice."

"_I must profess that I'm utterly speechless, hearing this…peculiar side of yours, Sir_."

"It's not 'Sir', Shiho, I'm '_Yzak_'." The insistency of his tone earned chuckles from his friends, but the commander was too engrossed with his call that he paid no attention to them.

She sounded baffled. "_Sir, I must protest—"_

"_Y-zak_," he drawled out, sounding more persistent than before.

"…_Okay,_ Yzak, _are you by any chance with Officer Elsman_?" She sounded accusingly, almost as if she knew that Dearka was in the vicinity. Dearka swallowed but said nothing.

"Who? Oh, you mean Dearka! Yeah! Why, why are you asking for him when I'm talking to you?" He snappily remarked, glaring at the electronic device that was the sole connection to him and the other line.

"_Comm—_," She was rudely cut off by the said man.

"It's _Yzak,_ Major! How many times do I have to tell you, call me _Yzak_?!"

She sounded stumped. "_A-Alright, Yzak, I—"_

"You know, you're very pretty," he bluntly blurted. Dearka choked, hearing his best friend finally commenting on a girl, let alone it was Shiho was something he had been pestering him to do for the past years, but actually hearing it from the man himself had caught him completely off guard, especially since the latter was quite drunk.

"_Er…Yzak I believe—"_

He cut her off once again. "Why are you always wearing pants? I mean, I get that you're uncomfortable with skirts, but c'mon! I'm curious to see you in a skirt." A frown marred the drunken Commander's face.

She sounded more desperate, frustrated even, as she attempted to reason with him. "_Yzak—_"

"And why are you always comfortable with Dearka? Do you like him? What's it with girls liking him anyways?" He accused, face tinted darker than before. The man in question had to purse his lips together in attempt to hold his laughter, hearing a jealous Yzak delighted the blond fellow to no end. Athrun, Kira, and Shinn bodies trembled, mouths covered with hands as they too tried to muffle their mirth.

"_No, I don't—"_

Yzak frowned. "He's a fool, you know. He's also loud, brash, annoying, a hindrance, and stupid, everything that's not me."

"_Yzak, what are you—_"

"I mean, he's already taken by Haww, I think that boy is pussy-whipped. Who would've thought that the great womanizer Dearka Elsman would be settling down with a Natural, following her around like a stray puppy?" He argued unsteadily.

"You know, Yzak, I'm standing right here," Dearka flatly said, unimpressed by the insult. He was promptly ignored by the rest.

"_Yzak!—"_

"What about me? You don't find me attractive? What do I lack that Zala and Elsman have? I think it's high time for us to talk about our apparent engagement, don't you think?"

"_Sir, I implore you, you are making a fool of yourself right now,_ _so will you just let me—"_

"I mean, mother has been wanting me to get hitch soon, you know, being under house arrest is a complete boredom. Perhaps we should really consider getting married soon and start producing heirs."

"_Damn it, Yzak—"_

"Are you hearing this?" Shinn snickered, evidently amused that the great Commander was pitifully whining on the phone. The hilarity was unbecoming yet amusing to no end.

"Forget hearing, I'm _recording _this epic moment," Dearka snorted, grinning widely as he captured the downfall of his friend with his mobile device. This was one hell of a priceless video that he's keeping forever in his phone, a possible ammunition to get back on him.

"Why don't we go on a date, shall we?"

The rest in proximity to the man choked after hearing the sudden question. By holy, was he actually asking her out when he's currently senselessly drunk?

"_Yzak Joule_!" The woman on the other line was agitatedly frustrated.

"Yes, that's my name," Yzak smoothly replied. "So is that a yes? Perhaps after work next week?"

"_You're clearly not in the right state of mind—_"

"Of course I am," he scoffed snobbishly, "why would I be calling you right now if I was drunk? I'm waiting for your answer."

"_Yzak, this is ridiculous! Border line insanity! You are clearly drunk, hence your absurdity and craziness, can you please just give the phone to Captain Elsman—"_

"I'm not hanging up until I get my answer, Shiho. If I don't get a reply in five seconds, I will be crazy. Five."

"_Would you please—"_

"Four—"

"_Goddamn it Joule!"_

"Three. I'm waiting, Shiho."

"_Well would you please just give me a moment—"_

"To think about it? I'm giving you five seconds. No, you now have two seconds."

"_Yzak, please be reasonable. I'm trying to help—"_

"And one, your reply?"

"_YES! For the love of god, I'll go with you, okay?! I'll go on a damn date with you, you incorrigible man!" _She exploded. It was clear that Shiho found this side of Yzak very frustrating. The subordinate was frazzled and distress, not knowing how or what to respond to her well drunken commander.

Yzak cheekily smiled, clearly satisfied with the outcome. "Excellent, I'll see you next week."

"_Commander—"_

Yzak ended the call with a simple touch of a button. He aimlessly threw his phone behind him and his hazy eyes averted themselves to his comrades who were looking at Yzak as if he sprouted another head.

"Well that went well," he stated choppily.

"Was it me, or was Yzak acting like the obnoxious version of Dearka just a moment ago?" Athrun rhetorically asked.

The silver-head promptly passed out seconds later.

"I'm going with the obnoxious Dearka-like version," Kira mused, stifling a laugh.

.

After many attempts to haul the sleeping silver-head out of the parlor (with the help of all four Coordinators), they staggered their way on the dark street of September One. Many boutiques and stores were closed earlier today in preparation of tomorrow's grand event. Although the wedding was going to take place in December City, other colonies were throwing flamboyant parties themselves to honor the Chairwoman's nuptial.

"Why the hell am I the one who's carrying him?" Dearka whined. He was somehow cajoled by the rest in being the one who carries the drunken Yzak by the arms. It was not pleasant half-carrying a dead drunken man who reeks of strong liqueur.

"I believe it was all your ploy to get him like this," Athrun wryly supplied, peering behind him.

"So, are we done for today?" Shinn asked, hopefully. He believed he had enough of tonight's exuberant event and would like to finally rest on his comfy bed for the rest of the night.

The blond threw a light glare. "Not a chance, the night's still young." The hopeful expression on the raven-haired lad quickly turned to a crestfallen one.

"Where are we even going next? Especially with a passed out Yzak," Kira added, craning his head forward. It was almost midnight and they have a long day ahead of them tomorrow. They were well aware of the hyperactive blond's perverseness, but a man could hold so much of the ornery.

"Then let's leave him here." The blond began to shrug off the drunken man, untangling his arm from his shoulder. The three awaken companions spluttered.

Athrun looked horrified at the absurd suggestion. He quickly grabbed hold of the sleeping silver-head before the latter hit the ground from the sudden transition. "Dearka! Are you _nuts_?! We can't leave him!" He glared, narrowing his emerald orbs at the said man.

"Sure we can," he smoothly countered, sounding very apathetic. "After all, I'm pretty sure some innocent bystander will pick him up off the street." As far as he's concern, his best friend will have no trouble finding his way back home. That is, once he regains conscious, of course.

Kira inwardly sighed and face palmed his forehead. "Dearka, let's just head home. I believe we should call it a night." Before Dearka could protest, the raven-head beside him interjected sharply. The latter's gaze was caught by three interestingly suspicious figures across the street.

"Hey, do you guys see that?" Shinn asked, eyes squinted. He pointed down the dark alley to where three dark figures stood in front of a building.

Dearka knitted his brows and squinted his eyes to the direction. "Where?"

Shinn jerked his head towards the direction, motioning the blond to look closer. "A bunch of people huddling in front of that building."

As they got closer, they could see one of them fiddling with a sphere-like object tossing it from one hand to the other before ejecting it to the building close by. Startled and alarmed, they quickened their pace towards the figures to inquire their motives.

The golden-haired man cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted out to them. "Hey! What are you guys doing?"

The three hooded figures flinched from the sudden voice and gaze towards the owner who was trotting closer to them with four others behind him.

"Crap! Thugs! Let's get out of here!" One of them panicked, quickly shuffling his steps.

"Run!" The hooded teenagers quickly scattered away in panic.

"Hey wait a minute!" cried Kira, quickening his pace to catch up to them. Although they were soldiers and have the capability to sprint faster, they teenagers had a head start and disappeared in the corner of the street.

"What were they doing?" Athrun wondered, frowning as he watched the retreating forms disappear in the night. He was the last one to join the party since he had to practically drag Yzak to the other side of the street. The blunet then set him on the ground next to a small gravel staircase allowing him to resume his slumber in peace.

"What are these?" Kira peered down to two occupied buckets on the ground. Shinn squatted down and began to examine them closely, picking a content from one and scrunched his brows.

"Balloon paint?" He said in puzzlement. "At night? What were they going to do with these?"

Dearka scratched his head. "Well from the looks of it, they were throwing them at the building over there." He pointed towards the evidence where some paints were splattered across the building wall.

Athrun frowned. "What should we do about this?"

"I have an idea." Mischievous amethyst eyes glinted brightly, almost glowing in the darkness.

In a flash, a balloon was thrown at an off-guard Athrun, splattering orange paint all over his shirt. The blunet widened his eyes and glared at the culprit. "Hey! Dearka! Quit it!"

The blond shrugged indifferently, "Why don't we use these balloons wisely?"

"And by that you mean throwing it at each other?" The bluenet dryly remarked. Athrun grimaced down at his now painted shirt. Feeling sticky, he decided to take out his shirt and threw it aside.

"Don't tell me this is going to be a game of dodge ball but with paint balls," Kira said, unimpressed.

The blond smirked. "Losers have to drink this." Dearka procured two bottles from his jacket, catching the eyes of his three male counterparts across.

"How—" The brown-haired man paused before sighing, "…I'm not even going to ask." Kira shook his head in disbelief. Just how things are going to go tumbling downhill from now?

The former Justice pilot looked placid, although he eyed the bottles warily. "Drinks again? Really, Dearka?"

The blond shrugged and grinned widely. "Hey, this is a one-time thing. Be spontaneous for once, Zala."

Shinn grabbed a bottle from the ZAFT Captain and examined it closely. He then raised a brow. "Where did you get this?"

"I stole it from the tattoo parlor," he nonchalantly replied, almost too casually.

Kira spluttered, almost choking at the blond's thievery. "You _what_?"

"Relax, they won't know they're missing." He then motioned a hand to Kira to the bottle in Shinn's hand. "Take a swing at it."

Shinn opened the bottle with a keychain cork screw—courtesy of the blond captain who tossed it at him—and took a sniff at it first. He made a bland expression. He then passed the liqueur to Kira who gave a hesitant sniff—after seeing the sour expression on his subordinate's face he became even more warily—at bottle and made a face. His nose wrinkled. "It's strong," he dryly stated.

"That's the whole point, Kira," chuckled Dearka. The blond then motioned Shinn to toss the cork screw to him. The former gave the last bottle to the blunet who also cringed in distaste after taking one whiff of it.

"Wasn't this the drink that made Yzak passed out?" He looked at his sleeping comrade and couldn't help but to give him a pity look.

"Yup," Dearka chirped. He then grabbed both bottles from the two friends and put it aside on the floor next to the sleeping silver-head.

"You and Shinn, against Athrun and me, sounds good?"

Athrun rolled his eyes. "Whatever, what do we have to lose anyways?"

"Our pride," Shinn remarked, callously.

"Oh c'mon! Just for fifteen minutes! No more, that's all I'm asking!" plead the blond, looking from one friend to another with unconvinced puppy-eyes.

Kira peered at Athrun who still have a disapproving expression and shrugged a 'why not?' gesture. The latter inwardly sighed out loud and finally nodded his head, much to Shinn's displeasure. The loud blond triumphantly cried out in glee as he began to separate the paint balls equally into two.

At the end, the two teams unsurprisingly tied with each other and decided that they all should chug the liqueurs themselves.

.

In the midst of their exuberant activity, two uniformed officers trolled around the corner aimlessly and found them. Alarmed by the late night activity, they began to sprint towards the group, guns in hands.

"This is SCPD! Put your hands in the air!" A warning voice shouted out, demandingly.

Dearka halted himself from throwing another paint ball and peered behind him. He uttered a curse. "Oh, goddamn it. Of all the time in the world, the police force just had to be in this district?" The patrolling officers lowered their rifles and put them back inside the holsters.

"Sirs, I am not going to repeat myself, put your hands in the air!" Slowly, the soldiers raised their hands up obediently.

"Sir have you been drinking tonight?" One of them asked, frowning. He surveyed the men before him and cringed at their messy sight.

"We're currently having a bachelor's party, so what do you think wise-ass?" An unsteady Shinn retorted smartly.

The officer was not amused by the retort. "Sir, I'm going to have to test you with a breathalyzer. Please refrain from doing anything…stupid," he added as he reached down to his pouch, looking warily at his captives, especially the one standing next to the red-eyed man. The brown-haired counterpart next to Shinn looked like he was about to pass out any moment.

"Sirs, do you all realize that you were vandalizing governmental property?" The policeman's partner inquired to the blond, raising a brow.

"Define 'vandalizing', Officer," Dearka cheekily grinned, hiccupping a bit.

The said officer looked miffed. Whether it was because he was stuck with an unwanted shift at night or dealing with drunken civilians or not, he just wanted to end this quickly since his shift was about to end. "Were you were throwing balloons filled with paint at the Governor's building?"

"No, we weren't. We simply picked up the paint that were left by some teenagers who vandalized the building. I didn't even realize that it was a governmental building until now."

"Clearly you're too drunk to even walk properly."

"Look here, _pal,_" Athrun began, face tinted as he looped an arm around the officer's shoulder. The latter gave a distaste look at the unwanted limb and pried it off. "We were just having fun."

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to—"

_Crack!_

The four elite soldiers looked up at the sound a glass breaking, only to find a now awake Yzak hovering over the two bodies of the fallen policemen with the top half of the bottles still clinging in his hands. He began to wobble himself towards the rest and pointed a broken bottle at them.

"Yzak, what—"

"What are you just standing there for? Run, you idiots!" They didn't have time to response for the silver-head had pushed them away, urging them to escape before any of the knocked out officers wakes up.

* * *

.

**Buenos Aires, United States of South America**

Fernandez Ranch

_Present, 1316 hours (less than 6 hours until the wedding)_

.

Marina unsuccessfully tried to muffle her laughter for the past hour. "You silly boys. You don't run away when a tiger tries to attack you."

"Are you insane woman? That beast was about to maul us alive!" The silver-head looked absolutely derisive about what just happened. Marina's father, Alejandro and a few other workers in the ranch caught the five Coordinators frantically running away from the large beast. Thankfully, the formers knew how to tame one and assured the rest that he was just being playful. The boys were skeptical about the reason behind the attack but nonetheless they dropped the subject. Marina suggested that they should rest after the long laborious hours under the heated sun. They were now sitting in the living room enjoying some refreshments and snacks as they await for Alejandro to return. Shinn had taken a shower earlier before joining them, courtesy of Marina who provided the boy with a set of fresh new clothes.

"I woke up to find myself in an unfamiliar place. Alone." He stretched the latter statement, giving his superior officers a dry look and looked absolutely miffed by the situation he was in. Rankings be damned. "Next thing I know, I was chased by that big cat."

"Do you remember what happened last night?" The blunet asked, hopefully. All he got in response was a flat look from the ace pilot. It was obvious that he vaguely remembers.

"Well, I'm just glad that you're safe, Shinn," Kira smiled warmly. Truth be told, he was rather frantic and scared shitless when the younger man had gone missing. With Shinn back with them, it will be easier for all of them to finally return home safely. The raven-head gave a small smile in return. "So, how are we supposed to go home now?"

"Well, we're currently trying to work our way out of here. Hopefully then, we'll have enough money to buy tickets to go to Orb," explained Kira. He sounded as if he was trying to convince himself that everything will be fine, but somehow he couldn't help but to feel unease once again.

"How long are we entitled to work here until our payment?" Athrun asked Marina who was busy pouring ice teas in tall glasses. He then quickly added, "Not that we don't enjoy being here, but we really have to go back home."

The woman chuckled. "Yes, you all are eager to go home. Don't fret, I'll get your payment now and you'll be on your way." The older woman got up and excused herself out of the living room.

"Well, Yzak over here is tired of cleaning horse shit," the blond snickered, craning his head towards the irritable silver-haired man.

Yzak growled. "Shut up, Dearka!"

A laugh escaped Marina's lips as she saw the silver-head looked quite flustered. "Stop yelling, _mariquita_," she mused as she disappeared pass the corridor.

Shinn let out a snort but quickly covered up with a poor excuse of a cough that caught the attention of the silver-head.

"Something funny, Asuka?" Yzak inquired, narrowing his eyes to the raven-head. Everyone else in the room then averted their gaze to the raven-haired Coordinator in question. Shinn stopped to look at the men around the room before clearing his throat.

"It's nothing sir. It's just…the name that she called you," he tried to sound professional, but miserably faltered towards the end. Evidently earning another sharp look from the Joule heir.

Dearka on the other hand looked quite interested by what Shinn had just said. "You speak Spanish?"

Shinn shrugged indifferently, slowly sitting up from his slouched position on the couch. "Fundamental Spanish, so just a tad bit. I know enough to understand basic conversations. I took a course in school back in Orb."

"Well what does '_Hombre rubio'_ mean?" He inquired, curiously.

"He's calling you a blond man, Captain," Shinn wryly supplied. Dearka wasn't so sure if he should be relief that the old man hadn't been insulting him the whole time.

Kira piped in, awkwardly pronouncing the syllables. "And what about '_Débil'_?"

"He's calling you…weakling I believe?"

Kira frowned. A weakling? Instinctively, he touched his face. Although he was well past his puberty age range, he—according to many others—still miraculously maintained some baby fat on his cheeks that made him look considerably younger than his actual age. Perhaps his ever baby face was the reason?

"Well how about _mariquita_? He's been calling me that ever since I stepped foot in this forsaken place. Mind translating it for me?" Honesty, Yzak couldn't tell if he was being thoroughly insulted. But judging from the way Marina would always snickered softly and the teasing smile that the old man wore when uttering the word, he'd assumed it was some sort of a teasing vocabulary.

The humorous snort escaped Shinn's lips once again but quickly silence it with his hand. He pursed his lips in attempt to stop another one from escaping. "I'd rather not, Commander," he managed to say, turning his head to the side to tremble in laughter. Seeing how the subordinate was poorly keeping his trap shut, Yzak pressed on the subject, even if he had to pull ranks to get the information he wanted.

"Asuka," the tone from the silver-head was anything but pleasant. "I am ordering you as a Commander. Now tell me what the word means." Although the Yzak tried to refrain from barking out an order, he wisely kept himself in control, keeping his temporal demeanor at bay.

"Well…" he murmured. "He's basically calling you a…pansy." The last word was spoken too softly, almost as a scandalous whisper. But Yzak's enhanced hearing allowed him to catch the soft word and his eyes widen.

"_Excuse me_?" Yzak spluttered, caught off guard. That earned a few giggles from the others around him. Yzak silent them with a simple glare and they immediately sobered up.

Shinn immediately began to frantically make hand gestures in attempt to calm the now fuming Commander. "It's like another word for feminine male, like for teasing someone. It's a harmless word, sir," Shinn supplied earnestly, casting a humorous glance to the rest.

Yzak went silent, pondering on the information that was provided. A pansy? He was anything but the given name! Now hold on just a minute, did he just say…feminine male? _What_—? His eyes then went wide as the subtle meaning finally dawned to him. "I am not _gay_!" He cried out vehemently. From his sudden outburst, the rest of his male companions—who had understood the meaning from when Shinn had explained it the first time—burst out in a fit of laughter.

"Are you sure about that, Yzak? Because you've been quite the celibately monk amongst us all. I mean, after all, you're the only one who doesn't have a _girlfriend,_" the last part was purposely drawled out by the blond whose laughter only grew louder by the unamused look on Yzak's face.

"Shut up, Dearka! I am not _gay_!" Yzak barked out, face tinted in red from his early fuming.

The blond clicked his tongue as he shook his head. "You know, first step in discovering yourself is denial."

"I am _not_ in denial, you blockheaded buffoon!"

Dearka scoffed. "Yzak, it's a pity, really. Because I honestly thought that you and Shiho together would've been quite the pair. But hey, I get that you swing the other way and I have no problem with that so long as you don't try and hit on me."

A glare was thrown to the former Buster pilot. "Even _if _I was gay you wouldn't be my type anyways! There is a protocol against having a relationship with other associates in your team!"

Dearka quirked a teasing brow, wiggling it suggestively. "_Oh_? In what rule book are you referring to? Because our good Red Coat Shin here," he pointed a thumb to the laughing raven-head on the other end of the sofa, "just so happens to be dating _his_ co-worker."

"You son of a—"

"Dearka, I believe that's enough. You, too Yzak," Kira interjected before Yzak could finish his vulgar statement, although the laughing smile was still graced on his face.

Yzak simply glared daggers at the needling blond before wisely complying with the Ultimate Coordinator's suggestion. There was no reason to be the victim of the Elsman heir's targeted subject of teasing.

"Say, Shinn, what does '_Guapo'_ mean?" Athrun queried the youngster curiously, shifting the gears in hopes to enter a more settle conversation.

The red-eyed Coordinator raised a brow before shaking his head. "I'm not surprised he referred you as that. He's basically saying that you're good looking." After all, Lunamaria—before they dated—was infatuated—perhaps still as of today—with the former FAITH pilot simply because of his heroic achievements and good looks.

A frown marred the Joule heir's face as he glared at his rival. "Why is Zala the only one who is being referred to something positive?!"

"Hey, the old man called me something neutral. Blond man, ain't that classic?"

"Dearka, you are a blond. At least he didn't refer to you with a denigrating term," Kira grumbled.

.

"My father and I thank you gentlemen for your help," Marina said graciously, a wide smile graced her pretty face. "Here are some food for your trip back to the airport." She handed him a basketful of fruits. The brown-haired man gratefully accepted it. The kind woman had provided a car for their journey back and had given them quite the amount of monetary allowance to buy their tickets home. Kira seemed rather frazzled by the hospitable gesture and at first rejected the grand amount. Marina assured them that they deserved it after helping them out and added that the little bonus was for new clothes and food for their trip.

Kira reflected the smile to the father and daughter. "No, thank _you_ for giving us the opportunity to work. You've done so much for us and we really appreciate this."

"_Mariquita_, I believe you should say goodbye to our hospitable hosts," the golden-haired man grinned, snaking an arm around Yzak.

"Stop calling me that, Elsman!" The Joule heir shrieked for the umpteenth time today, slapping the tanned limb away.

Dearka could only laughed in response. "Only time will tell, Yzak."

.

Three grumpy men sat impatiently in the back passenger seat of the old truck, averting their gaze from the left to right to the passenger on the front seat and the driver's seat. Oddly enough, much to Yzak's chagrin that is, Dearka volunteered to do the driving. Kira and Athrun professed that they weren't up to be behind the wheel due to some strain muscles from the labor. And Yzak vehemently refused to be sitting next to Dearka since he was mildly pissed off with the golden-haired man. Which left Shinn to sit in the front passenger begrudgingly reading the directions. Those two paired up in the front may seemed like a neutral pair…or so they thought.

It was a recipe for disaster.

"We've been driving for like hours, are you sure you know where to go?" Kira asked, tiredly in the backseat. He fanned himself with his hand, attempting to cool his body from the overbearing heat of Buenos Aires summer weather.

Dearka glanced up to the rear mirror. "Relax, I'm driving down the same road where Marina drove us." The coaxing did not soothe the ace pilot at all, in fact, it made him even more anxious than before.

A red faced Yzak growled from behind, he too was sweating from the unbearable heat. "I don't remember this road." The lone long road was surrounded by endless tall trees from right to left, conspicuously a telltale that they were lost.

Dearka wisely ignored the silver-head. Instead, he peered his eyes to the younger lad who looked troubled reading the map. "Shinn, where to next?"

Shinn scrunched his brows together, scratching his nape nervously. "I believe we turn…left?" He replied, unsurely.

"Shinn, give me the map," Athrun demanded exasperatedly from behind. Dutifully, the lad complied without any protest and passed the paper to the bluenet in the backseat. Athrun glanced down, knitted brows, and after a quick scan, his eyes widened. "Jeez, Shinn! No wonder we've been wandering around! You've been reading the map upside down!"

"Say what?!" Screeched Yzak and Kira simultaneously in disbelief. The former's eyes twitched in anger as he glared in front.

"Turn the damn car around!" Yzak roared, pushing himself off his seat as he hovered next to the blond steering the wheel. While Yzak argued measurably with his best friend, Kira shook his head and averted his gaze away.

He peered out the window, squinted eyes, and frowned as his eyes located a two large vehicles on the side of the road. A handful of figures were finger pointing to their car, making hand gestures and shouting while at it. Kira furrowed his brows and wondered if something was wrong with their car. He rolled down his window, allowing him to finally hear the shouting voices. "Hey, they're trying to tell us something," Kira said, pointing outside.

The shouts went through. "_Para el carro_!"

Confusion plastered the men's faces as they caught on what they said. "What did he say?" Dearka asked, brows furrowed quizzically.

"I believe he wants us to pull over," Yzak supplied, dryly. He may not know the language, but has enough common sense to understand hand gestures and facial expressions to tell if someone wants something.

Shinn frowned. "What? Why should we?"

"It's because they have guns," Athrun concluded, eyeing the weapons outside.

The blond inwardly sighed and pulled over by the curb. Within seconds afterwards, the car was surrounded by armed men looking suspiciously at the company inside the vehicle. A large man knocked on Dearka's window and the latter quickly complied and rolled it down. "Hi," he greeted with a lopsided grin. The large man had an unperturbed expression on his face, merely staring at the blond man as if he was an alien.

"_¿Adónde van?"_ The large man inquired, narrowing his eyes.

"Shinn, a little help here buddy?"

"I may understand Spanish but it's to a certain degree, Captain."

The man looked from one man to the other. "Where are you going?" He asked once more in the universal language with a heavy accent.

Dearka blinked. "Oh, to the airport."

The other man raised a brow, inquiringly. "Do you realized you've entered a restricted area?"

"Er, no?"

He gave him a doubtful look. "You don't realized it?"

The blond sighed out loud before giving an annoyed look to his male counterpart to the side. "Look here, buddy. We don't want any trouble, so please let us through."

The other man stared blankly at the golden-haired pilot before raising his hand and making a hand gesture. Guns were ensued, pointing directly to the people inside the vehicle through the window.

"Get out." He ordered, cocking his gun to the blond. The surround men glaring at the fellows inside. "Now."

The Coordinators sobered up. Hands raised in surrender they immediately complied and stepped out of the car.

"Good going, idiot," Yzak murmured, almost hauntingly.

.

"Tick…tock…tick…tock…tick…tock…tick…tock…tick…tock…tick—"

"Sod off, Elsman!" The fair-head amongst them visibly snapped, deciding that he just had enough of the abhorrent sound. The golden-haired friend, quaintly enough, was making those obnoxious noise for the past god knows how long they've been detained in the metal box behind a truck. As it already was enough that they were forcibly dragged out of their car and stall their plans to go home once and for all.

Dearka ceased his clicking, but not before he gave Yzak and questionable look. "Why?"

"It's annoying," Athrun piped in exasperatedly, answering in Yzak's stead. He honestly looked more dejected than irritated.

"Who are they?" Shinn asked diverting the subject, glancing around from one man to the other in hope for an answer. Even with the lack of mentioning who, they all understood who the raven-head was referring to.

"I believe they're the militias here. USSA don't have formal armed forces so rebels group together to make a band," the former Justice pilot explain, grimacing at the mention of 'rebels'.

"So what do they want with us?" The brown-haired Coordinator began to involuntarily rub his tied hands together, suddenly itching from the friction.

Dearka rolled his eyes and scoffed, as if he found the question absurd. "Screw that, why are we being kidnap is the question." His gaze then averted to Yzak across from him and his quirked a questionable brow up.

As if he understood faint message given, the silver-head lips curled into a snarl. "Do I look like I know the answer to that?" Honestly, could this situation get any worse?

"We are unarmed. I just hope that they won't kill us," the bluenet auspiciously said, slouching farther down his seat.

Kira made a face and wondered, "How did we end up here anyways?"

Yzak scoffed. "Scatterbrain over there can't read directions. I cannot believe that he managed to graduate the Academy as a Red Coat Elite," the platinum-haired Coordinator supplied, tilting his head towards the said man. Dearka merely scowled in response.

"Hey! My co-pilot just had to read the map wrong!" The latter argued in justification.

As if he knew that the indirect message was referring to him, Shinn sunk lower in his seat. "It's not my fault that directions here are so hard to understand." The raven-haired murmured under his breath, diverting his eyes to the floor.

Dearka's protest was a deaf ear to the Orb Admiral. He gave the golden-haired Coordinator a callous look. "Well thanks to you, they think we're spies for the Feds. Nice going idiot."

"Oi, I resent that! Plus, they were the ones who were pointing their guns at me! How the hell am I supposed to react?" In retrospect, he was one who had caused the men to point their guns at them after making a stupid interjection.

"How about calm?" Yzak wryly replied, giving the man in question a flat look.

The blond shot an unimpressed look to his best friend. "No one asked you, Yzak," he snarled.

"Do you think they'll kill us?" Kira easily transition to a much dire question at hand, hoping to end the idle conversation that was not solving their problem in any means.

"Please, they're just a bunch of Naturals," the Joule heir scoffed, dismissing the thought that the situation was a life threatening case. Although his stomach churned at the possible thought of one.

To add more salt to the wound, the blond added, "Yeah, who managed to capture us." It was an ego bruiser after all, five Coordinators being taken custody by Naturals, it was a laughable notion. Not to mention they were ZAFT and Orb soldiers, veteran soldiers at the least.

The irritable Commander glared across his seat. "Shut up, Elsman."

"Where are they taking us?" Shinn queried, interjecting the verbal spat between the two superior officers.

Athrun shrugged. "Their base maybe?"

"We are so not going to PLANTs," groaned the groom. And to think that he was going to be married today.

"Don't be a pessimist, Yamato," sighed Yzak, although he too was doubting his own words.

The calm blunet raised a brow. "Then what do you supposed us to do? Attack them? For your information, Yzak, we are currently shackled up." He raised his handcuffed hands to emphasize his point.

"We've been on the road for quite sometimes," the golden-haired pilot sullenly remarked.

Yzak averted his gaze back to the culprit who got them into this stalling mess. He narrowed his eyes. "When we go back, I'm making sure your ass is being put to work, Dearka."

Hearing the sudden turn of conversation, Dearka looked up, eyes widen at his commander. "What?! Why me? I believe you owe me a week paid leave since I beat your drunken ass back at the pub," he reminded, his lips curled downward.

Yzak relented as the vague memory of their pub shenanigan and the careless bets that were made began to relive in his mind. He scowled. As a prideful man, he's expected to keep his words, even though he was tricked into making idle promises. "Fine, enjoy your week off. After that, you'll be put on tour and won't be back for three months."

Dearka croaked. "Are you screwing with me, Yzak? _Three months_?!"

His superior leaned against the hard cold bench and shrugged. "I'm your superior, you can't question my order. Better yet if you do, I'll write you up for insubordination."

"You can't possibly be pulling ranks when we're in this kind of situation now!" He countered, arguably.

"_¡__Cállate!_" A booming voice shouted from the double door of the truck, immediately seizing all spatting. They were surprised that they hadn't picked up the fact that the truck had stopped. Judging by the armed men behind the voice owner, they were to be transferred elsewhere. Yzak surveyed the armed men and fought the urge to roll his eyes in front of his captors. They were taking unnecessary precautionary action. Even if they're Coordinators, they were unarmed and vulnerable, there were no reasons why they should be pointing guns at them.

"Get out," the large man choppily ordered, thumbing a gesture.

One by one, the Coordinators got off the truck like they were ordered. With a few pushes and shoves, they relented and followed closely behind their leader. It was a short walk to their destination, noting how a glimpse of rooftop peeked from a group of trees. They were quickly led inside an abandoned warehouse and were greeted with a sight to behold. Five chairs were settled in the middle of the room, giving it an eerie atmosphere. The set-up uncanny resembled an interrogating room with armed men flocked every corners, watching their every moves with hawked-eyes. Dearka wrinkled his nose in distaste, whiffing the foul odor occupying the room. It reeks of bad cigars and gun-smoke, an unpleasant combination.

"Sit," Large Man grumbled, pointing towards the chairs. Wordlessly, they complied, not desiring to start an unnecessary fuss. A second later, five men made their way behind each chairs, tying a rope around their bodies to their seat. Yzak grumbled lowly as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat, earning a glare from his captor who intentionally made another loop around his hands from behind. Kira winced in pain as his captor tied the ropes a little too tightly, he concluded that it was purposely done to prevent any suspicious movements on his part. Shinn fought an urge to sneer at the man who had the nerves to snort at him while Athrun unsurprisingly complied with his.

After another moment of struggling, the captors seamlessly finished their tasks and resumed back to their posts. A second later, a man in a bullet-proof vest came in the room. Unlike the rest troop, he seemed more well-groomed, with jet-black hair pulled back neatly, lighter skin tone contrasting his tanned arms, and a pair of gray eyes looking calm and collected. He gaze averted to the captives and surveyed each one by one. The large man who escorted them made his way and the Coordinators quickly surmised that the fair man was their leader. The former whispered inaudibly to the latter, far too quiet for a Coordinator to decipher. The fair man nodded to the said man before making his way to the captives. He stopped a few feet away, arms crossed and stared at them with scrutinizing eyes.

After about a minute has elapsed, he opened his mouth. "Who are you working for?" The man inquired without a hint of accent. He wasted no time and went straight to business, no amiable greetings or exchanges, just prompt. The way he sounded so smooth made it seemed as if he's used to interrogating people for answers.

Yzak spoke up, having been to keep quiet for a while. He leveled a glare to the man, not caring that he was in a roomful of menacing men who are armed with artilleries. "Nobody."

The man quirked a brow, clearing doubting the silver-head's words by the looks of it. "So you're not from the Federation?"

This time, Shinn snorted. The fair man's gaze averted down the row to the raven-haired Coordinator. "Are you serious? Do you actually think that we're from that arrogant and Blue-Cosmos-infiltrated place?"

The interrogator merely shrugged, still keeping a placid façade. "Are you?" He locked eyes with the latter.

"No!" The red-eyed man barked out, spitefully. The thought of being a citizen in that nation was repulsive and preposterous as it was.

The man stared for a long second with calculating eyes, almost trying to detect any falsehood from the younger man. He blinked and sighed, frustrated with the little progression. He ran a hand through his silky black locks and turned around, back facing the captives. He beckoned the large man to hither closer and the former began to spat in rapid Spanish silkily. The Coordinators watched their exchange with mild interest, from the looks of it, the light skinned man looked quite irritable. The large dark skinned man made a defensive gesture, jerking his head towards the said Coordinators every now and then. Finally, after about a few more minutes of verbal arguments, the leader shook his head and shooed the other man away with a hand wave. He turned his attention back to the captives and narrowed his eyes.

"Then why are you here? Clearly, you're not from around here," he sounded accusingly.

"Of course we're not from around here," The golden-haired captive scoffed, earning a glare from his interrogator. The latter curled his lips, looking quite grim.

"So you are from the Feds," the latter dryly concluded once again, crossing his arms across his chest. Somehow to the gang, he sounded as if he wanted them to be from the Federation.

The idle game of reverse psychology went on for another two minutes. All five Coordinators insisted that they have no clue what the fair man was talking about with the latter kept looping his accusations over and over again, insisting that they were working for someone. Shinn—being the impatient one and was irritated by the accusations—finally blew up.

"Okay _STOP_!" Shinn roared, seizing all spats in the room. His red eyes glared at the man standing tall before him and began to spill their true identity, clearing all misunderstandings. "For the last, we are not from the Federation." He looked dead straight in eyes of the man before him who looked quite startled by his outburst. "I'm from _PLANTs_, along with the rest here! Except that one right there," jerking his head towards Athrun, "who's from Orb! All we want is to _get out_ of your country, not _stay _in your country!"

Dark brows knitted together. "So you're all Coordinators," he stated, his blue eyes now guarded from the epiphany. With that said, the armed men around the room tensed up and narrowed their eyes to the five captives in the center.

"Yes," Shinn stressed, exasperatedly, almost grateful that the man finally caught on. "We just want to get of this nation."

The man glared and sneered. "You got a problem with us South Americans?"

Dearka spluttered along with the rest who looked momentarily panicked. "What? _No_! We just want to go home!"

"Are you spies from ZAFT?" He asked, tentatively. His hand consciously went to grab hold of the gun on the holster to his side.

Kira shook his head frantically, witnessing his cautionary movement in horror. "No, we're just civilians. We weren't even supposed to be here."

Confusion graced his face. "Well then, why the hell are you guys even here?" He queried once again, looking conflicted at the situation. But by the slightly shocked look on his face, he was not expecting them to be Coordinators, let alone being in the wrong country.

Kira diverted his eyes to the ground dejectedly. "That's a long story," the Ultimate Coordinator sighed, drawling out a heavy breath.

The fair man raised a brow almost challenging the statement. He then motioned a guard to grab a chair for him. "Try me, I got all the time in the world, _mi amigo_."

.

"S-o, what are were going to do?" Dearka pondered in a hush voice, glancing at Yzak, who had the misfortune to be tied up next to him. Yzak had been silently trembling in anger ever since the interrogator left the room a while ago. The once filled with armed men room had decreased to a small number of merely five men. Shortly after they narrated their story to the fair man, the latter went silent for a good minute, staring at the Coordinators with calculating eyes. He got up and whispered something to his second-in-command before promptly leaving without a backward glance at them, followed by a good number of his fellowmen.

The Coordinators didn't know whether or not they should feel insulted by the mere number or lucky since they were underestimated just because they were dumped down to captive Coordinators and were deemed as unthreatened.

For the first fifteen minutes since their leader left, the men left to guard merely watched them, idling chatting amongst themselves. Judging by the every-now-and-then glances at them, they were making snide comments about them, a notion that annoyed the silver-head. They eventually resorted to a table nearby for a game of poker, boisterously laughing and smoking strong cigars in the process.

"Well, first thing first, we need to get ourselves out of this mess," Athrun chimed in, glaring down at the entangled ropes around him. Was it really necessary to tie him up twice?

"How do you supposed we do that?" Shinn muttered wryly, fidgeting in his seat. The ropes around his body was itching his pale skin.

Dearka piped another question that the rest had also been wondering. "Why are they still keeping us hostages?" No one had an answer for that. The blond inwardly sighed, discerned that every single one of them looked grim and angry although he couldn't really blame them.

"Anyone have a sharp object on them?" Kira asked tentatively, glancing from side to side. Everyone shook their head. Goddamn it. Yzak gritted his teeth, fists clenched, and finally after wallowing himself in almost self-pity, he's just about had it with shit.

"Well, I can't take this shit anymore," the forgotten fuming silver-head hissed all of the sudden, making everyone twitched. "We are getting out of here, you hear me?" He then struggled to stand up on his feet, raise the wooden chair along with him since his body was bolted down to the seat. The rest of his companions looked alarmed, eyes widened, at his sudden movement. Kira nervously glanced to the preoccupied guards, still unaware of his friend's sudden action. Yzak was not being quiet about the ruckus he was making and by the looks of it, he could care less.

"Yzak, what the hell are you doing?" Athrun hissed sharply, almost horrified at his action.

Yzak shot him a dark glare. "Shut up and follow my lead if you want to get out of here, Zala." The statement was meant for the rest, too. He motioned the rest to follow his action with a head jerk. The rest, still hesitant about following his lead, reluctantly complied slowly, fully aware that they have no alternative plans to follow.

The determined look of Yzak's face didn't falter. "On the count of three, we slam this piece of crappy chair down until it falls apart, get ourselves untangle, rush towards those bastard and grab any ammunitions you see on them. Hit them, disable them, I don't care, better yet, knock them out cold. See those barrels over there," he nodded towards the large empty cylinders at the corner of the room next to the poker table. "Push those barrels to them to buy us time. Our closest exit is that bolted door on the opposite end about five meters away from them. Earlier after their ringleader left, I heard at least five cars leaving this place. Judging by how lax those fools are, they are the only ones in this warehouse with us since they assumed we are harmless. I don't know about those outside but I'm betting my money that there aren't a whole lot of those bunch. Count your blessings because this is our only shot at getting out of here alive."

He peered at each one of them, waiting for any possible doubts to come out. "Any objections?" He questioned, daringly.

Dearka looked hesitant. "Are you sure this is going to work?"

"If you got any other bright ideas from that brain of yours, do tell," the silver-haired Commander retorted, wryly.

No response was made, a faint understanding that no one had any better ideas than the one he had proposed. "Good, on my mark; one."

Both blunet and brunet looked to the poker table. They refused to believe just because the guards were Naturals, they could not possibly detect any suspicious activities by now. It must take a lot of energy to be that oblivious.

"Two."

Shinn counted a grand total of five rifles on the side of the table, three 9mm pistols visible on the display, five pocket knives, and a few minor weapons on top of the counter_. At least I don't see grenades_, he mused. Dearka squinted his eyes through the window and found two visible guards leisurely talking, clearing having their guards down. He suspected that there's at least five or so more stationed outside.

"One."

Following the last count, all five Coordinators slammed their wooden chairs to the ground easily breaking it apart. Alarmed, the guards shot up from their seats, knocking down chairs in the process, and grabbed the nearest weapon around them.

Unfortunately for Naturals, their genetic make-up delayed a moment of comprehension, enabling the Coordinators to rush towards the said men and quickly ambushed them. Yzak and Athrun elbowed three guards on the face, punching their guts with handcuffed hands, before disabling their weapons. Dearka and Kira took care of the smaller two, easily knocking off the weapons their holding with their long legs before head-butting their sneering faces. Shinn took advantage of the preoccupied moment and grabbed as much as artilleries his arms could hold.

It took a grand total of forty-five seconds to knock them out cold, give or take a few resistances and struggles here and there.

Both Athrun and Kira hastened their pace towards the empty tint cylinders and pushed them towards the fallen soldiers while Yzak and Shinn began to shoot at the bolted doors. They pushed the doors open and immediately was greeted by gun shots barreling at them.

"Take cover!" Dearka warned, sliding to the ground. Seconds later, more gun shots rang in the outdoors as the armed gunmen outside began to shoot at the Coordinators.

A gun targeting the blond and it went off. Instinctively, Dearka ducked, but kept his shackled hands up in the air to allow the bullet to graze the chains. His hands now unboned allowed him to leverage the ability to throw fists. With his enhanced speed he dodged three more shots and got closer to the enemy. He jerked a long leg and kicked out the gun from the latter's hand.

The golden-haired man gazed down to the shiny object on the left hand and frowned. "A switchblade, buddy. Really?" Dearka inquired, unimpressed.

His opponent shrugged and replied with a strong accent, "I'm the one who's at a disadvantage here, being a Natural and all."

The golden-haired Coordinator made a pondering face before nodding in understanding. "True." His foe delivered another kick, aiming at his sides in which the blond quickly shuffled to the back. Jerking his left arm back, he halted another kick delivering to his upper left torso. Having the Coordinator momentarily distracted, the Natural took advantaged and lunged forward, knife in hand, zeroing sharply to his midriff.

The raven-haired Coordinator released an angry breath. "We just want to get out of here!" Shinn cried out, angrily, averting to the side.

"_¡__Callate!_" He spat, lunging another hit towards the red-eyed Coordinator.

"What's the point of keeping us in the first place anyways?" Athrun asked his opponent, eyes squinting. He thrust a fist towards the man, grazing him on his chin as the latter faltered back. His foe shouted out something incoherently rapidly in his mother tongue, glaring vehemently at him and Athrun mentally slapped himself. Of course, how in the world would he himself understand Spanish anyways? It was a stupid question to ask in the first place. Obviously they understood them, but vice versa? Not a clue.

"_¡Mira_, _tío! _It's why don't you just stop? You're clearly outnumbered."

"We just want to go home!" Kira protested, frustrated. He swung a leg and made contact with the side of his enemy's face, throwing him backwards from the forcible thrust.

The Joule heir curled his lips upward before slamming a kick to his enemy's torso, sending him flying back with a thud. "Elsman, Zala, Yamato, Asuka! We need to go, NOW!" Yzak barked out, clearly sounding miffed that they have to fight their way out of this.

The blond snorted. "How? As you can see, we're a bit busy," Dearka grumbled, side stepping a fist before delivering one himself. He took cover from another gunshot targeting him.

Kira eyed the small cylinder shaped object that looks like a timed-smoking incendiary hanging loosely from the side-belted pocket of his foe. His mind took control of his body as determination willed him to lunge for the prized possession—a ticket to escape. He ducked lowly evading a swung fist, purposely nearing the man's side and quickly grabbed the ammunition. He shuffled back a few steps and shouted, "Guys, think fast!"

Within seconds, the area was filled with smoke screen, hindering many sights to see in the clouded area save the five Coordinators who managed to escape from their opponents. The Coordinators took advantage of the situation and bolted out of the battlefield.

"Way to go, Yamato," Yzak complimented with approval from behind.

"Where exactly are we going to do now?" Shinn asked, casting a wary look to the older men. "We escaped, _whoo hoo_, now how the hell are we supposed to get out of here?"

Their momentarily hopefulness quickly faltered as they realized they've never thought this far in their plan to escape.

"Hey, look over there!" The former Buster pilot exclaimed excitedly, pointing ahead. "You guys see that?"

Ahead was a helipad stationed with a chopper, and to their pleasure, the lift was surprisingly unguarded, not one armed gunmen on sight. "How convenient, they have a chopper waiting for us," Athrun mused. "This may or may not be a coincidence, but I am sure as hell not complaining."

"Well does anyone know how to operate that thing?" Kira huffed, nervously glancing back to see any signs of their captors.

"_¡Mierda! _They're getting away!" A faint voice shouted from behind.

"Stop them!"

"They're getting closer," Shinn noted grimly, quickening his pace.

Yzak cursed spitefully under his breath. "Quickly damn it! Get inside the chopper now!" One by one, the Coordinators embarked inside the lift and quickly strapped themselves to the seats.

Realizing that he was the only one that managed to free his bondage hands, Dearka quickly took action and sat in the operating seat and turned the gears, igniting the operating system. "Where are we heading to? We can't possibly make it to Carpentaria with this fuel."

The silver-head made a sour face as if the blond suggested a preposterous option. "No, you moron. I know we can't that's why we're heading to Orb."

* * *

.

**Olofat, Yalafath; United Emirates of Orb**

_Present, 1532 hours (less than 4 hours until wedding)_

.

"Say _WHAT_?!"

Colonel Ledonir Kisaka visibly cringed at the loud exclamation coming from the group of younger men. It wasn't that he had wanted to bear the bad news, but his boss, Chief Representative Cagalli Yula Athha, will hear none of it. He had heard of their escapades from PLANTs all the way until Orb. Cagalli, being the stubborn hardheaded woman she was, knew that they were bound to ask help from Orb in getting back to PLANTs so she made sure that no one from the Orb Military aid them in any possible way.

He pitied the younger men, really. They caused quite a ruckus after landing on the mainland unorthodoxly, especially since they requested emergency landing causing all kinds of conflicts in the docking area. Kira had the courtesy to explain their quite adventurous story, pleading him to help them get back to PLANTs in time for the wedding. Unfortunately, his hands were tied.

"Kisaka, you're kidding right? Please tell me you're kidding," Kira plead in frustration. After hearing his peculiar adventure that had got him this far, he had _almost,_ mind you, _almost_, gave in into the temptation.

The older man shook his head, pursing his lips into a tight line. "I'm sorry, Kira. As much as I hate to do this, these are direct orders from Lady Cagalli," Kisaka answered apologetically. The brother of the Chief Representative looked down dejectedly.

"What the in the bloody hell is wrong with your woman, Zala?! This is ludicrous!" Yzak screeched, glaring at Athrun.

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" Athrun retorted back, looking equally frustrated. It wasn't his fault that his girlfriend just have to be irrational at an important day.

Dearka ran a hand down his face and let out an involuntarily growl. "How does she know anyways?"

The Colonel raised a brow. "You guys don't know?"

"Know what?" Kira queried, frowning.

_Of course, how would they know?_ Kisaka thought wryly. The Chief most trusted advisor merely sighed before looking at his boss's brother. "You all are practically celebrities. Your little adventure was caught on camera." The said males froze in place, mouths gapping open in shock.

"You're screwing with me." The blond looked even more frustrated than before.

"It was all over the news," was his simple reply, shrugging.

"Just kill me now," the Ultimate Coordinator muttered to himself, covering his face with his hands in disgrace. Just how much was their escapades paraded to the public?

The silver-head clicked his tongue before meeting the eyes of the older man. "Look, here old man. We've been through hell the past twelve hours of our lives, perhaps more. We have little to no recollection of memories from our rendezvous last night, we miraculously survived a crash in the goddamn planet Mars, we were misled to the USSA, we were forced to perform manual labors in order for us to get here and let me tell you, cleaning horses manures isn't easy and pleasant, we were kidnapped and detained by a bunch of anti-Feds rebels who thought we were spies, and now you're tell me that we're being rejected from any aides by your Lady in this goddamn country?!" Yzak roared, fuming from ear to ear with redden face.

Kisaka could only spare a glance with an enquiring brow at the fuming Coordinator before dismissing his rude comment. What else could he say that can possibly change their dilemma?

Speak of the Lady, he gave the tablet that he was instructed to give to the Freedom pilot and supplied. "Here's a video she would like you guys to see. I believe she had heard about your…adventurous trip."

Mutely, the brown-haired grabbed the tablet and turned it on. Athrun, Dearka, Shinn and Yzak quickly huddled around the boy, eager to know what the video content was. The black screen immediately sparked to life and now showing a rather pissed off looking Cagalli behind a desk.

"_**You IDIOTS**_!" She began thundering her insults vocally as her golden eyes glared to the camera. The video showed the Chief Representative clad in her uniform standing behind her desk, fist clenched glaring at the camera as if she were actually facing them. Kira involuntarily flinched. Of course, she'd be mad. And he bet good money that the people hovering behind him flinched along with.

"_**Do you guys know just how much trouble you are in right now? Huh? You almost gave us a heart attack! I am so angry right now that I just want to go through the camera to give you a good slap, you idiot little brother of mine**__!"_

"Honestly, I think still Kira is the eldest," Athrun murmured looking quite grim at his pissed off girlfriend.

"_**Shall I list the senseless exploits you idiots have done that cause such disasters?! 'Cause I have a pretty darn good feeling that you nitwits were too drunk to even remember**_!"

"Man, she's good. Must be a twin thing," Dearka commented. Shinn and Yzak could only nod in agreement.

"_**Did you guys even realize that you were publicized? Caught on camera at the terminal? Stole two private shuttles? A club flight? Tattoos? Caused havoc with PLANTs diplomatic relationship with the Martians?! Ignored the Martians Armed Forces?! Crashed landed?! What the **_**hell**_** is the matter with you people**_?!" For every event listed, the Coordinators twitched. She then went on a rant about how irresponsible they were and just how much of a disgrace it was being caught on camera as war veterans.

"_**And those pictures**_!" The blond Natural gasped angrily. Her glare multiplied tenfold. Four Coordinators paled, save for the youngest one who looked quite perplexed.

"What is she talking about, Athrun?" Shinn asked, worriedly. He hoped that the Chief Representative's boyfriend would at least understand his loud and boisterous girlfriend's motive.

Athrun swallowed hard. "I don't know, Shinn. But I feel like it's not something that I'd want to see."

"_**Kira! You bastard! How could you?! You better have a goddamn good explanation about the picture**__!_"

Her brother could only gulped, unsure whether or not he actually does have a valid explanation. After all, he could only vaguely remember what occurrence happened last night that led them here. Let alone, not quite understanding what pictures she was referring to.

"_**And Dearka, you jerk! I can't believe you're cheating on Miriallia**_!"

The former Buster pilot could only gaped his mouth open, startled by the accusation. _"What_?!" The blond spluttered in shocked. Clearly he was_ not_ anticipating that.

"_**I can't wait till you get an earful from her! Perhaps you're showing your true colors**__!"_

"What the hell is she talking about?! I never cheated on Millie!" He shouted out, glaring at Athrun as if he was the culprit of this mess. Somehow, everyone thinks that by looking at her boyfriend, they will have their questions miraculously answered by the latter since he knows her best. Athrun could only glare back, resenting how he was the unofficial designated problem solver.

"_**Yzak! Honestly, you…I'm just speechless**_**. **_**I don't know if I should be amused by the videos or not**__._ "

Yzak's eyes narrowed dangerously. "What _videos_?"

"_**Shinn! I better hope that you have some sort of life insurance after Lunamaria saw that picture of you**_!"

The poor youngster merely scrunched his brows in confusion. What the heck was she talking about?

"_**Athrun, you better have a good explanation about this photo or else I will do something to you**_. _**Preferably castrate your balls**_."

The said Coordinator could only closed his eyes and prayed that whatever it was, it was not some indecent pictures of him making a fool out of himself.

"_**Listen well you buffoons, because I am **_**not**_** going to repeat myself. **_**Orb. Will. Not. Help. You**_**. Understand? And as Chief Representative, I made sure that no shuttle, G-weapons, skygraspers, helicopters, or any military transportations will help you get back to PLANT! You got yourself in this mess so you fix it yourself! And if I find that you all, especially you Athrun, go behind my back and make any of my subordinates heed your orders there will be hell to pay**_**.**" The clip lasted a few more seconds before it flicker back into darkness.

Silence fell amongst the Coordinators in question as they took a good minute to absorb what the blond Natural had just said until everyone began to protest simultaneously save the calm Colonel.

"Zala! Your woman is mad!" The silver-haired Commander cried out in accusation, angrily. He glared daggers at the blunet who happens to be the boyfriend of the Goddess of Victory.

Athrun shot a glare back at him. "You think I don't know that?"

"Where is Cagalli now? I believe we can reason something out with her," Kira plead to Kisaka, hoping for a silver lining. Perhaps he could talk some sense into his sister.

Kisaka shook his head, sympathizing the lad before him. "I'm sorry Kira. Lady Cagalli left for PLANTs earlier this morning."

"It's going to take a miracle for us to get home now," Shinn muttered in disdain. If only he could turn back time, none of this crap would've happen to him.

"I guess our only option is to swim to Carpentaria Base. It's the closest ZAFT territory from here," the blond pilot sighed as he scratched his nape. What else could go wrong now?

"So how the hell are we supposed to get out of here? Didn't you hear Athha? We do not have access to any transportation in this nation!" Yzak screeched, making frantic hand gestures indicating just how stressful the situation was.

The forgotten Colonel cleared his throat, catching the attention of the quarrelsome Coordinators before him. "Actually, boys. I believe Lady Cagalli said we couldn't help you go back to PLANTs."

"That was what she said," Yzak dryly remarked, giving him a flat look.

Kisaka wisely ignored the rebuttal and continued on his explanation. "Yes, indeed. But never about aiding you all to go to _ZAFT territories_ here on Earth."

Now this piqued everyone's interest. Kira, Athrun, Shinn, and Yzak exchanged looks and they all quirked an interest brow while Dearka, master of word play, grinned mischievously clearly liking where the older man was going with the conversation. "We're listening," he urged.

"I mean damn." He cursed, slightly alarming the Coordinators. "I apologize, I mean you all are PLANT delegates save Athrun here. So, by any chance if a transportation—_ahem_—Skygrasper—_ahem_—went missing, we couldn't possibly shoot it down even if Lady Cagalli ordered us to not aid you all in any way after all her brother will be in that lift." By now, all Coordinators were smirking in agreement. Who would've thought that Kisaka has one crafty mindset?

"Kisaka, you sly bastard!" Dearka cried out with a Cheshire cat grin plastered across his face.

"As much as I respect Lady Cagalli, I would not let a royal member of the family be left to dust. But to avoid any…complication with the Chief, why don't we just say that you boys…took an unauthorized transportation without the military knowing."

"I like the way you think." For the first time today, Yzak complimented someone with a grin.

Athrun shook his head and couldn't help but to wonder just how much trouble the older man will be in if his girlfriend finds out. But nonetheless, he couldn't argue, his plan was the best one they've got. "How fast can you prepare it for us?"

"I'm not supposed to know _your _plan. But what I can do is make the military personnel here be ignorant of your escapade when you…break into the facility in Onogoro. But we have to act as if we are stopping you from taking the transport. So don't be shock if the alarm goes off when you do your thing in the facility and a bunch of personnel in Onogoro began to go after you."

"You mean steal," Shinn flatly supplied, but couldn't help to tug the corner of his lips.

Kisaka shrugged inwardly and grinned. "I like the term 'take' better. After all, I _am _authorizing this little agreement of ours. You do your thing, and I'll be obtusely ignorant about it," he said, winking.

.

"You, Athrun, and Shinn go grab one together while Dearka and I get another," Yzak ordered the rest. The boys were in disguise wearing Morgenroete orange colored auxiliary member uniforms, courtesy of Kisaka who secretly provided for them. They managed to sneak into the Onogoro facility using alias and are currently depicting as engineers working in the hangar where their prized possessions were located in.

"Why the hell am I stuck with you?" The annoyed blond looked grimaced after discovering that he was going to be stuck with no other Yzak.

Yzak shot him a glare. "Shut up, Elsman. Any objection?" He surveyed the group and everyone else save Dearka were shaking their heads. For the life of him, this plan better work.

"Just one problem. The lifts are single cockpit only, Yzak," Athrun pointed out, frowning at the realization.

"There's room in the sides. We can't just steal five Skygrasper for each of us. Remember, we're trying to do minimum damage here. We can't complain since time is running out, Zala."

"How are we going to take them undetected?" Shinn asked, glancing at their tickets home that were stationed near the exit.

"One of us will distract the crew members working around when the other quickly sneak in the cockpit," Athrun explained, looking at Yzak for confirmation. The silver-head nodded in agreement.

"Somehow, this reminds me of our mission back in Heliopolis," the blond snickered, recalling the disastrous mission that they partook in order to steal the latest G-weapons the EAF had created a few years back.

At the mention of his destroyed hometown, Kira gave him a flat and bitter look. "Yeah, I remembered that day _very well_. Thanks to you, my home was destroyed."

"You know we didn't mean to do that," Athrun interjected, wincing at the bitter memory that had also cost the lives of his good comrades.

Kira sighed and waved a dismissive hand. "Yeah, yeah. I know. We all were oblivious that the EA were producing them under our nose. It's all in the past, let's not talk about it." He had long forgiven them for that monumental day. After all, it had changed his life forever.

"Fine," Yzak began, hoping to steer the subject back on track. "Just make it believable that we're actually stealing these things? Remember, Cagalli has eyes and ears in this place."

"You mean surveillance cameras," Dearka flatly corrected, snorting.

"Shut your trap, Elsman," the fair-head growled.

.

* * *

.

**Carpentaria Base, ZAFT Military Territory**

Present

.

"Sir! Two unauthorized Orb Skygraspers are approaching the base as we speak!" One soldier informed his unit.

"What?" His superior officer barked out incredulously next to him. "Did they identify themselves?"

"They claimed to be ZAFT soldiers, sir! They are requesting permission for emergency landing!"

"Permission denied! Who do they think they are?!"

.

_Meanwhile, on the outskirt of Carpentaria Base…_

"Oh, for the love of god, you just have to pick a Skygrasper that is running low on fuel you imbecile!" Yzak seethed to the blond who was operating the lift.

Dearka stole a glance to the silver-haired behind him and glared lightly. "Hey! It's not my fault that they were chasing us as if we were actual criminals!" In the attempt of successfully 'stealing' two Orb military units, they were actually being chased down by the military, missiles, G-weapons, helicopters, the whole nine yards basically. The blond cursed out loud when he remembered how Kisaka mentioned that they were going to be chase after by the Onogoro task force, but what he didn't anticipate that they were actually _treating_ the scenario as if it was a real thing, chasing them down like wanted convicts.

"There were like hundreds of them to choose from!" Yzak argued back, sounding more incredulous by the second.

"Well this one was the closest to the exit, so sue me!" Dearka countered, hissing impatiently.

"_This is not the time to be fighting_!" Athrun hissed through the radio from the other stolen Skygrasper. _"Do you realize they're shooting at us?!"_

"Well no shit," Yzak wryly commented, inadvertently throwing a hand gesture in the air. The blond steered the lift to a sudden turn, momentarily misbalancing the silver-haired in towed.

"How the hell are we supposed to land safely if they won't give us a clear landing?" Dearka exclaimed, partially anxious that they were getting dangerously close to the base without a clear place to land, to top that off, their fuel was running low like Yzak said. This was not going to end well if they don't have access to a clear helipad soon.

"_Yzak! They're not listening to us_!" Kira cried out in frustration. "_We tried tell them that we're ZAFT soldiers but they don't believe us at all!_"

Goddamn it. Must he do everything to solicit their way out of messes? "Give me that, Elsman!" Yzak quickly grabbed the radio's walkie-talkie from the blond's hand. _This better work_, he thought bitterly.

"What are you doing?!" Dearka cried out as he quickly put his now free hand back on the steering controller.

"I'm going to save our behinds you ingrate! Put it on universal radio." He replied, thwarted. He put the device close to his lips and began his speech, "This is Commander Yzak Joule of the ZAFT Military Forces. I am requesting an emergency landing. All personnel clear the ground immediately!"

.

Chaos erupted in the air traffic control room as officers of all ranks began to question the man who self-professed himself as the infamous Commander on the other line.

"_The_ Commander Yzak Joule?!"

"How do you know that it's really him?"

"This is some kind of joke?"

"That can't be. Isn't he supposed to be in PLANTs?"

'Oh it's him alright. Signal the ground forces to give a clear landing for them." The superior officer simply gave a hand gesture to the rest of the team to signal green. He had the pleasure of meeting the young commander once, and also had the displeasure of seeing his temporal side. There was no doubt the man behind the radio was in fact the young Commander Yzak Joule.

One of his subordinate skeptically looked at him. "What? Are you insane Second Lieutenant?! What if it's not him?"

"If you haven't been following the news, Sergeant, our angry Commander was in a quite amusing trip with his friends. It's not a surprise that they requested help from Orb to get here."

He still wasn't convinced. "Sir, what do you mean by that? This might be a terrorist attack!"

The radio then began to blare with the screeching voice of the said angry Commander.

"_**YOU DUMBASSES! GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY BEFORE YOU GET YOURSELF KILL RIGHT NOW! BETTER YET, IF YOU ALL MIRACULOUSLY SURVIVE THIS I WILL BE THE ONE WHO MURDER YOU MYSELF IF YOU KNUCKLEHEADS REFUSE TO FOLLOW MY ORDERS THIS INSTANT**_!"

The air traffic control room fell into a prolong stillness.

"Does that suffice your curiosity, Sergeant?" His superior officer inquired in resignation, giving his subordinate a half-lidded eyes bored expression. The very vocal person on the other line was no doubt a telltale of the frightening well-known Commander of the ZAFT Forces. After all, the angry intonation let alone ensued with a string of insults were dead giveaways to identify the enigmatic man.

The underling solider merely turned around for he does not need to be told twice and immediately began to bark orders through the radio to the ground personnel. "All hands on ground clear the docking area immediately! Prepare for an emergency landing!"

.

"C-Commander Joule! What a pleasant surprise!" A man in a ground force uniform greeted with a ZAFT salute. Quickly after the ace pilots disembarked their transports, a group of soldiers swamped the vicinity, hoping to get some answers.

The silver-haired simply gave a small nod of acknowledgement before getting straight to business. "Who's in charge here?"

"I am sir! Lieutenant Major Dalton Boyce at your service!" The officer beside the other one greeted.

"Good, now prepare an aircraft right this second."

The soldiers looked taken aback, not anticipating the sudden order from the infamous ZAFT Commander. They gave each other an identical look of confusion before looking back at the Commander. "Sir?"

Yzak glared at the unmoved soldiers before him. "What are you just standing there for, you morons? Get me a damn aircraft to PLANT! _NOW_!" His comrades behind flinched at his last statement.

"If I may be bold, sir, may I ask is why?" The Lieutenant Major boldly questioned.

The silver-haired Commander looked incredulous that they had the gall to question his authority. "_Why_? I'll tell you why, Solider! Commander Kira Yamato, Supreme Council Chairwoman's _fiancé_, has a wedding to be at right now! So stop questioning my orders and get your asses out of here and find me the fastest military air shuttle to PLANTs this instant!"

"B-but sir—"

The impatient silver-haired Commander cut his speech by grabbing him by the collar and pulling him dangerously close to the former. He has no time to idly chat with incompetent soldiers who won't do their jobs properly let alone, listen to their superior officers.

"Listen here, Lieutenant Major," he whispered coldly, "We have a wedding to go to. And if you nincompoops don't follow my orders right now, I will make sure that you will be demoted to KP duties in the galley for the rest of your duration of your tour in this forsaken place. Do you understand, Soldier?"

"U-Understood, Commander," he swallowed audibly, nodding rapidly in understanding. Now he understand why Commander Joule was one of the fiercest Commander of the ZAFT Forces.

Another soldier clad in the ground force uniform hurriedly made his way towards them and saluted. "Sir, we have an aircraft leaving for PLANTs in about T-minus thirty minutes."

Yzak nodded. "Good, in the meantime, my comrades and I will be heading towards the showers. If you kindly please, show us the way and prepare us some uniforms for a spare change of clothes."

"Right away, Sir!" He saluted the silver-head before quickly making the preparation.

The lackadaisical look on Dearka's face quickly sobered up to a more serious one, as if he remembered something important. "Speaking of, does anyone have a phone that can go long distance?"

Shinn gave his superior a weird look. "What for?"

The blond nervously scratched his nape and shifted his feet. He sheepishly smiled, "I need to call my girlfriend to straighten some…misunderstandings."

.

.

.

* * *

**A/N:** Wow. This chapter was absolutely a monster to write. Jeez, took me forever to get the satisfying plot for this chapter. Over thirty pages people. Wow. I'm glad that this chapter is done, and I hope this long chapter make up for my lack of update this past week. I honestly wasn't so sure about this chapter. I kept going back and rewriting scenes and editing the crap out of them. So please forgive me if this wasn't an exciting and good chapter. T.T

Well on the other hand, one more chapter to go! And judging by the crazy ideas in my head, the final chapter will roughly be the same length as this one here (perhaps even longer O.O). Who loved Yzak's drunken moment?! Let me know by reviewing! :D

For those who love Yzak and Shiho, I published a new story about them! It's a short romantic comedy about how Yzak tries to win the heart of his favorite ace pilot! Check it out!

Again, thank you for reading, let me know what you think by reviewing!

.

**blackberrymint**\- Haha, yes I truly enjoyed writing out the fight scene at the club. I believe this chapter answered your curiosity :D. Haha, I believe Yzak is the type who will have the emotional roller coast phase. Thanks again for reviewing!

**Cuteshe**\- Haha, yes, our favorite expressionless Shiho :3. Hmm, I honestly never thought of adding another Astray characters to the plot. I only included Lowe because from what I've read in Gundam Wiki, he spent some times in Mars. Maybe in my future stories I'll include them, especially since I've been thinking about writing a Gundam Seed arc, something that's way out of my usual genre.

**Yuriski-1****st**-Definitely, our favorite Commander will eventually let loose when Dearka comes along :D Thanks for reviewing!


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